Protecting Your Digital 4th Amendment Rights
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chair, House Judiciary Committee: Did you know that right now, the government is able to access email that is 180 days old or older without a warrant? That's why the House unanimously passed the bipartisan Email Privacy Act, which establishes a uniform warrant requirement for the government to obtain the contents of electronic communications. In other words, the 🚓 should not 👀 your 📧 without a🏛 warrant. The bill now heads to the Senate.
This will be the first time the law governing your electronic communications has been updated since 1986 - when mail was sent through the US Postal Service, a search engine was called a library, tweets were the sounds made by birds in the trees and clouds were found only in the sky.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS). It had 314 cosponsors.
Key Provisions of H.R. 699:
Warrant requirement: The bill creates a uniform warrant standard for law enforcement to obtain the content of communications in criminal investigations. ECPA warrants will continue to be executed with the provider since, as with any other third-party custodian, the information is stored with them. It allows the provider to notify its customers of receipt of a warrant, court order, or subpoena, unless the provider is court ordered to delay such notification.
Remote Computing Services: The bill maintains current law that delineates which remote computing service providers – or cloud providers – are subject to the warrant requirement for content in a criminal investigation. ECPA has traditionally imposed heightened legal process and procedures to obtain information for which the customer has a reasonable expectation of privacy, namely emails, texts, photos, videos, and documents stored in the cloud.
Allows Law Enforcement to Access Public Information: ECPA currently makes no distinction between content disclosed to the public, like an advertisement on a website, versus content disclosed only to one or a handful of persons, like an email or text message. The result is that law enforcement would be required to obtain a warrant even for publicly-disclosed content. The bill clarifies that commercial public content can be obtained with a process other than a warrant.
Maintains Congress’s investigative power: The bill clarifies that nothing in the law limits Congress’s authority to subpoena information from third parties in furtherance of congressional oversight.
Tags: Email Privacy Act, protecting, digital 4th Amendment Rights, your emails, Bob Goodlatte, Chair, House Judiciary Committee, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
This will be the first time the law governing your electronic communications has been updated since 1986 - when mail was sent through the US Postal Service, a search engine was called a library, tweets were the sounds made by birds in the trees and clouds were found only in the sky.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS). It had 314 cosponsors.
Key Provisions of H.R. 699:
Warrant requirement: The bill creates a uniform warrant standard for law enforcement to obtain the content of communications in criminal investigations. ECPA warrants will continue to be executed with the provider since, as with any other third-party custodian, the information is stored with them. It allows the provider to notify its customers of receipt of a warrant, court order, or subpoena, unless the provider is court ordered to delay such notification.
Remote Computing Services: The bill maintains current law that delineates which remote computing service providers – or cloud providers – are subject to the warrant requirement for content in a criminal investigation. ECPA has traditionally imposed heightened legal process and procedures to obtain information for which the customer has a reasonable expectation of privacy, namely emails, texts, photos, videos, and documents stored in the cloud.
Allows Law Enforcement to Access Public Information: ECPA currently makes no distinction between content disclosed to the public, like an advertisement on a website, versus content disclosed only to one or a handful of persons, like an email or text message. The result is that law enforcement would be required to obtain a warrant even for publicly-disclosed content. The bill clarifies that commercial public content can be obtained with a process other than a warrant.
Maintains Congress’s investigative power: The bill clarifies that nothing in the law limits Congress’s authority to subpoena information from third parties in furtherance of congressional oversight.
Tags: Email Privacy Act, protecting, digital 4th Amendment Rights, your emails, Bob Goodlatte, Chair, House Judiciary Committee, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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