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Comment by chuckadams | Hacker News Reader

I'm no lawyer, but I would think the purposes for which they read your email and the actions taken subsequently are blatantly illegal, and would invalidate the entire contract.

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Yes, but severing would end up in court versus a very belligerent party, who would do their utmost to cost you money. An organization that prioritizes safety over ethics will just suck up the extra cost, apparently.

There are companies and organizations out there fighting for what’s right in courtrooms. Invalidating troll-owned patents, striking down unfair contracts etc. Agency A was obviously not one of those organizations.

I worked for a very successful multinational that I think was relatively moral (at least very moral vs average - e.g. we at least stood by our commitments and contracts and didn’t try and re-trade them if they went against us) and they took the approach that they were never going to be a “soft target”: nuisance law suits - litigate don’t settle, unethical behavior by vendors or customers - we’ll see you in court. It was probably more expensive for a decade or so, but over the long run it saved a ton of money and hassle.

I remember that being the Newegg philosophy w.r.t. patent trolls.

Yes, especially since this sounds like a government agency. Some contractor snuck a backdoor into your email servers and is secretly reading them? Imagine what kind of corrupt practices, up to and including foreign espionage, that they could get up to. They could have been justified in sending in the FBI or CIA if this was the US. Probably would have put a stop to their vendor problems really quick.

I don't need to imagine anything, it's just another day in the Belpaese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SISMI-Telecom_scandal

> On 21 July 2006, Adamo Bove, predecessor of Tavaroli as responsible of security at the Telecom company and former DIGOS member, died in Naples by falling from a motorway bridge. Bove had discovered a flaw in the system which enabled people to enter the Telecom system and implement wiretaps without leaving a trace.

"Falling from a motorway bridge"???!!

Better than "falling under a bridge" like this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi

Also, not legal advice, but you absolutely should name and shame them for this

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