[rietta]

The practical short answer is yes, yes it will. It is not privileged communication. It is not considered private since you have left it on a third party server. It is discoverable via legal process to the third parties that retain the chat log.

The same goes for communications on any social media or public forum, including discussions here on HN.

[hluska]

That wasn’t the thought exercise. Of course third party data can be accessed by a subpoena. The thought exercise is about digital hygiene and being careful with what you feed the databases.

[pbhjpbhj]

Emails on a third-party server are still considered private? That doesn't mean they can't be subpoenaed but they're far from being public.

[rietta]

My informal use of private missed the mark in a strict legalistic sense. We are on the same page about email left on the server being subject to subpoena.

For everyone else, unless you use POP3 to download your email to your own personal device and remove it from the server, the email left on the server is not as protected under US law as emails that are fully downloaded to your device. The later requires a search warrant to acquire without your consent.

[aspenmayer]

Not exactly private, either.

> Under the ECPA, emails lose their status as protected communication in 180 days. After that time, a warrant is no longer necessary. Law enforcement can access your emails through a simple subpoena.

https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/online-scams/email-privacy-...

[Spivak]

Which is so stupid, there's a probably a million examples of this exact pattern. It is crazy that courts have decided that people don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy for data that is otherwise kept secret with multiple locks, and guards at the door. Clearly people expect it to be kept private, it's more protected than their house.

If I ask Alice to store my diary for me and keep it secret it seems obvious to everyone except law enforcement that you should have to get a warrant and serve it to me before getting it from her.

[hluska]

In my country, the concept is that your data is private until an investigator can convince a judge to provide a warrant. The judge theoretically serves the role of the person’s privacy advocate. Once a warrant is provided, specific items included within the warrant are no longer considered private.