...and tap phone lines. one of the parties to the communication should be suspected to be a foreigner or non-US resident [1]. of course, all e-mail stored in or transiting through the US - which applies to many webmail applications - would be subject to such spying without oversight, and providers can't require a warrant any more in order to provide what they have to the NSA.
the widespread violations of privacy by the financial transaction exchange SWIFT [2] - because transaction data was housed in the US and therefore subject to US rules on snooping - shows the risks of putting the world's privacy eggs into one basket. i would prefer belgium or switzerland for my mailstore. a question to the silklisters-in-the-know: do the popular webmail apps: a) distribute mail across the world - close to users, say b) store them in privacy-protecting jurisdictions, or c) store them where technically convenient or cheap, giving no thought to user privacy? i suspect (c)... of course, for people using the phone, voip with end-to-end encryption (skype, or less proprietary alternatives) looks increasingly more attractive than using a telecom provider that is bound to cooperate with the NSA. -rishab 1. Law boosts power to eavesdrop in U.S. - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-wiretapaug06,1,1818088.story 2. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/28/swift_us_privacy_violation/
