From: dawson@willard.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.bbs.waffle
Subject: Re: UUCP mail processing ethics
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 07:30:22 EST
Followup-To: comp.bbs.misc
Organization: Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814

Please, don't take me 100% literally here... allow me to play devil's
advocate for a minute.

bob@1776.COM (Robert Coe) writes:

> I'm not sure I believe that the P.O. does that, but in the case of the phone
> company, there are rules regarding how that information is used.  I think 
> that in most, if not all, states you can't browse those records without a 
> search warrant.

You can't, but they can.  However, the co cannot freely divulge info therein.
You can be sure that regular operation of the system, including proper billing,
requires that extensive records be kept.  The same arguments could be applied
here.  Perhaps part of the dilemma is that there is no clear separation of
email routing info (the headers -- which could be argued as being less private
than the actual content of the message) and the actual body of the email.

OK.. suppose you see what you believe to be an inordinate amount of email
passing through your system.  Further suppose that you have not really
tried to position your system as a staging area for downstream sites.  You
have only one option if you want to have some idea of what's going on:  you
have to look at the headers, and see where things are going in general.
But, you'd likely not wish to keep records of such traffic, unless you
had plans of billing your uucp neighbors for that activity (perhaps you
have visions of a different billing rate for traffic that merely passes
through your system -- hoping to discourage such activity, no doubt...)

> So let me throw out yet another bone to chew on:  Would any 
> UUCP sysop in his right mind keep records of passthrough messages if he 
> thought there were the slightest possibility that he might be served with a 
> search warrant by a Government agency investigating someone who sent mail 
> through his site?

If I were positioning my system as a publice ~utility~ , YES.  I would make
it a matter of record that EVERYTHING would be logged, just in case of the
slightest possibility that I might be served with a summons.  You seem to
be more concerned about search warrants than some other possible actions.
(That indicates to the fascist-pig-types that you have something to hide!)

Suppose you are the subject of a civil lawsuit from one of your customers
(or subscribers/users/whatever..); suppose the charge is one involving
privacy issues.  Suppose they attempt to present evidence that you've
violated their civil privacy rights... have you prepared yourself for that
by sticking your head in the sand, or have you better prepared against it
by keeping full and complete routing records?  --  maybe as simple as
automatically storing email headers from all messages in the incoming
spool...

> 
>    ___            _                                           -  Bob
>    /__) _   /    / ) _   _
> (_/__) (_)_(_)  (___(_)_(/_______________________________________ bob@1776.CO
> Robert K. Coe ** 14 Churchill St, Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776 ** 508-443-326

----------------------------------------
Disclaimer:  At no time (past, present, or future) have I participated in
any of the activities described within this message, either at work or at
home.  There have been no opinions expressed, only questions for each of
us to ponder.

PS.  This seems to be only tangentially related to comp.bbs.waffle, so I'm
directing follow-ups to comp.bbs.misc.

-- 
dawson@willard.UUCP (Willard Dawson)
gatech!vdbsan!willard!dawson
emory!slammer!willard!dawson
Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814