GAINESVILLE- The scandal swirling around former C-I-A Director David Petraeus and General John Allen is making headlines this week.

The focus is on the thousands of emails confiscated by the F-B-I.

Private email accounts aren't necessarily as provate as they may seem.

Some area college students are unaware of how much of their personal messages can be open to the public and federal law enforcement.

As part of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a federal prosecutor's subpoena is all that's needed to obtain electronic messages that are at least six months old.

UF First Amendment Expert, Clay Calvert says an easy way to avoid controversdy is to get back to communication basics.

"Just to talk to a person face to face, there is no public record made of that. I mean certainly someone can find out there was a meeting but doing business in person is a smart move."