Law in the browser too? In the early 2000s, former senators of the USA Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley introduced a bill to force businesses to comply with federal prosecutors during investigations. It was largely a response to the Enron scandal in 2001, when an energy company was able to hide billions of dollars.
The law, which became law, is known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and was signed by President Bush 2002.
Since then, the Sarbanes-Oxley Law has discreetly provided the legal basis for prosecuting even deleting the browser's history.
Such is the case of Khairullozhon Matanov, an 24 former taxi driver who ate his meal with Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev the night after the bombings at the Boston Marathon.
Federal prosecutors accused Matanov of using the Sarbanes-Oxley law to destroy evidence in his browser, as reported by The Nation.
According to The Nation, Matanov learned that Tsarnaevs were suspicious of the bombing a few days after their meal, and went to report it to the local police station in Quincy, Massachusett.
But he allegedly told some lies to the police, such as when he prayed with Tamerlan. It was then discovered that he had also deleted his browsing history from his browser, as well as the video from his computer.
In May 2014, after being watched by the FBI for more than a year, Matanov was charged with four counts of obstructing justice, namely "destroying any file, document, or tangible object with intent to obstruct a federal investigation." This charge could result in up to 20 years in prison, according to The Nation.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is largely concerned with corporate financial information, but one section of it, Section 802, imposes severe penalties for “destruction, concealment, falsification files, documents, or physical objects” intended to obstruct or delay a federal investigation.
Of course the vagueness of the law and the extended rhetoric of each judge allows it to be applied even to intangible, personal information stored in archives an online activity.
Posted by TheVerge.