The Value of a Face-to-Face Meeting

According to a recent report, the IRS considers the internet communications of American citizens – not just Facebook posts and Twitter messages, but even personal email – to be theirs for the reading.

Though the Fourth Amendment protects your computer hard drive as well as physical letters in a file cabinet, the IRS insists it needs no warrant to access conversations you conduct electronically. The thinking is that these communications lose their reasonable expectation of privacy once they leave your computer.

In the 2010 case of U.S. v. Warshak, a Federal appeals court disagreed. Nevertheless, according an update to an IRS manual published months after the Warshak decision, the official policy remains unchanged: investigators can access anything in an account (except for unopened emails or voice mail stored with a provider for 180 days or less) without a warrant.

I wish I could say this is a joke, but sorry – April Fools Day is long gone.

It could be argued that if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear. But that’s not the point. Though there’s nothing juicy or incriminating there, I don’t want the government sniffing through my emails. Period.

A formidable array of major corporations as well as a broad spectrum of advocacy groups is asking for a change in the law that would specifically put emails under Fourth Amendment protection. But in the meantime – and even after they succeed – it makes me wonder: what’s the matter with good, old-fashioned face-to-face communications?

You’re reading my blog, so you know I’m not opposed to reaching out electronically. But there’s something to be said for looking someone in the eye, picking up on body language to “hear” what’s not said, and sharing a smile. Such personal communication is more complete, more meaningful, and more memorable than electronic words.  It shows your friends, family and people you do business with that you care enough to spend time with them.

We’ve probably all seen that lovely couple out to dinner who spend their entire meal on the phone with someone else! Or the teenager who sits at the family dinner table texting, while what should be an important part of her world turns without her.

In a society such as ours, it’s not always possible or practical to meet with people personally. But let’s not treat getting together like an odious chore, or view it with the same disdain we give an outmoded hairstyle. A face-to-face can build friendships and business relationships - it’s an investment worth making and it keeps the IRS from nosing around in our business!

Hey, by the way, are you free for lunch tomorrow?