Tort of intrusion upon seclusion
The issue of tort of intrusion upon seclusion in cyberspace has become something of daily routine. It usually results in unauthorized access to facilities or information which may result in spying on government websites and actually distortion of highly confidential information and data about a person or corporation (dodccrp.org/events/10th_ICCRTS/CD/papers/290.pdf). This act is a violation of the law and must be extended to the cyberspace on top of being practiced in the real world.
The main reason why I would like tort of intrusion into seclusion in cyberspace to become a public concern governed by law is the privacy of people. Some of personal websites and email addresses contain highly sensitive information which if leaked to the outer world would cause turmoil and maybe war. A good example is the information contained in the emails of highly ranked military officers in any country (dodccrp.org/events/10th_ICCRTS/CD/papers/290.pdf).
The second issue is official use of email addresses. Any employee has the right to link his/her personal email to official email without having to be spied on. Any act of intrusion in the personal email as it is the case of Calderon in the quoted case even if you are mandated by the state laws is a violation of law since the officer was not inspecting the emails for any official purpose but for personal interests. This is supported by the fact that Calderon had once competed with Steinbach in an elections thus prying on her personal emails would be taken to be an act of investigating the personal movements of the complainant (hr.cch.com/cases/steinbach.pdf).
Judging from the facts above, the plaintiff has successfully presented a case against the defendant. In most cases, the plaintiffs do not successfully gain justice for cyberspace intrusion. The main challenge is the lame excuse given that a mayor or president has the overall power of even misusing official positions to intrude in cyber privacy (hr.cch.com/cases/steinbach.pdf). Due to the complex case presentation and provision of evidence beyond doubt also makes the process of reporting cyber privacy intrusion difficult. Lastly, cyberspace intrusion into seclusion is most done by highly ranked government hackers thus trying to report the case is just a mere waste of time and resources.
In conclusion, the remedy to this problem would be enforcement of the cyberspace privacy laws. The penalties attached to the intrusion must also be large enough to discourage hackers. The government should respond to action of office abuse to cyber privacy with great consideration and drop some of the two sided laws that allow and on the other hand deter the officers from cyberspace intrusion (dodccrp.org/events/10th_ICCRTS/CD/papers/290.pdf).
http://www.dodccrp.org/events/10th_ICCRTS/CD/papers/290.pdf
