By Matthew Scott
Last of two parts. (Part 1)
Sweeping warrants recently issued in the Jussie Smollett special investigation pit privacy rights against law enforcement. Today’s report details the perils in unsent or draft emails and texts.
Chicago special prosecutor Dan Webb must prove fraud in last year’s
alleged Jussie Smollett attack — and that most likely enabled him to get warrants for deleted and unsent information from Google, New York privacy advocate Adam Wandt told Digital Privacy News.
Fraud cases often require law enforcement to probe deeper to prove intent and motive, explained Wandt, assistant professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Because so many crimes are growing in sophistication, prosecutors are asking for — and obtaining — greater access to digital information. Warrants seeking access to email drafts, deleted emails and GPS tracking data from multiple platforms now are extremely common, Wandt said.
Criminals have been found to delete or manipulate such data to commit and hide illegal activity. Terrorists were the first to evade authorities by communicating through email drafts without sending them.
“They’d type up a draft, do not send it, then somebody else logs in to the same account,” he said. “That person then reads the draft, and they delete it.
“There is never an actual sent email,” Wandt noted, but the message is communicated.
The “strategy” has been replicated in organized crime — and now is common among drug dealers and fraudsters worldwide.
Continue reading “Jussie Smollett Orders: Dangers in Email Drafts and Deleted Texts” →
