Thinking of deleting your internet browser history? Think again. Because according to cyber laws and acts, you might be committing a felony.
The laws suggest us that any one can be booked by law enforcement authorities for erasing your browser history?
Going into the details, Former U.S. Congressmen Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Michael Oxley (R-OH) scripted a law in the early 2001, which compelled the corporations to co operate with federal prosecutors during probes.
This law is now broadly interpreted that anyone could be charged for deleting data at any point of time. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act mostly pertains to corporate financial reporting, but Section 802 of the law imposes severe penalties for “destroying, mutilating, concealing, falsifying records, documents, or tangible objects” with the intention of impeding a federal probe.
But since it is difficult to emancipate the true intent, the current interpretation of Section 802 makes it possible for the authorities to book anyone under it for deleting data that could turn out to be potential evidence in a crime at a later date.
A 24-year-old former cab driver, Khairullozhon Matanov, who dined with Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev on the night of the Boston Marathon bombings, was charged under this act for destroying evidence, which included his internet browser history. The charge was sentenced with a possible 20 years for the felony.
