like most of my security posts, this one is from bruce:
The courts have ruled that the police can search your data without a
warrant, as long as that data is held by others. The police need a
warrant to read the e-mail on your computer; but they don't need one to
read it off the backup tapes at your ISP. According to the Supreme
Court, that's not a search as defined by the 4th Amendment.
moral of the story? if you have info online, the govt (or anybody else, really) can get to it. so dont come crying when it gets stolen.