This week, a number of Internet and Tech organizations and trade associations called on Congress to pass H.R. 1852, the Email Privacy Act. The bill, introduced by Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-KS), Congressman Tom Graves (R-GA) and Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO), would require government agents to obtain warrants from a judge in order to force service providers to disclose the private email and documents they store online for their customers.
For many years, Internet and Tech organizations and industry leaders have urged Congress to fix the outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). This week, the Email Privacy Act, which would amend ECPA and fix some of the major privacy gaps with the law, reached a significant milestone as it received its 218th co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. With the majority of House Members backing this important bill, there is strong, bipartisan support to update ECPA and create a clean warrant-for-content standard. In addition, recent polling data shows that 84% of voters supported ECPA reform. Groups are calling on the House of Representatives to quickly take up H.R. 1852 and amend ECPA.
Check out some of the blog posts from Internet and Tech groups: