Senate Committee Approves ECPA Reform That Requires Warrants; But Will It Ever Become Law?

from the doubtful dept

As we had hoped earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee did, in fact, approve Senator Patrick Leahy's attempt at ECPA reform, which would require law enforcement to do something crazy like "get a warrant" before sifting through your email. The bill was approved despite law enforcement types freaking out that they might actually have to ask a court for permission. Senator Chuck Grassley, as expected, introduced an amendment that would have greatly weakened the warrant requirement for various federal agencies, but it was thankfully voted down.

Of course, at this point, the victory is largely symbolic, as it's happening in a lameduck Congress. The bill still needs to pass the full Senate and have a comparable House version pass as well. In other words: nothing is happening until next year when this whole process may need to repeat. And given some of the quotes from Grassley and law enforcement, there will be yet another effort to strip some of these warrant requirements. Still, it's nice to see that there's at least some recognition in Congress that electronic privacy laws are woefully out of date, and leave private information, such as emails, way too open to law enforcement snooping.

Filed Under: chuck grassley, ecpa, ecpa reform, law enforcement, patrick leahy, privacy, warrants

It's Time To Update Our Privacy Laws: Tell Your Elected Officials To Reform ECPA Now

from the about-time dept

We've written a few times about the urgent need to reform ECPA -- the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which is woefully outdated, having passed in 1986. Of course, every time there's an attempt to reform it, it seems to fail, often because folks in law enforcement like the outdated law that lets them easily spy on others without a warrant. The latest attempt at ECPA reform is a mostly good proposal from Senator Leahy that (as expected) has law enforcement types livid. The crux of the reform is that law enforcement would need to get a warrant for most situations if they wanted to peer into your electronic lives. That seems entirely consistent with that quaint concept sometimes referred to as the Fourth Amendment.

Last week there was some buzz about a possible manager's amendment from Leahy that would open the door to various federal agencies being able to issue subpoenas without having to get warrants, but Leahy has since insisted that he will introduce no such amendment. Whether it was because of the outcry about it, or if it was never really intended, is a point of some debate. But, either way, the outcry did make some impact -- though not enough. There are still rumors of similar privacy destroying amendments from other Senators at the markup, which is slated for this upcoming Thursday.

In particular, it is expected that Senator Chuck Grassley is planning to sell out the 4th Amendment by offering an amendment even worse than the one discussed last week. It would take away the requirement for a warrant for many more federal agencies. Apparently, Senator Grassley thinks that the whole requirement of warrants based on probable cause before searches can take place is a recommendation, rather than the law of the land.

Given that, a bunch of groups and organizations have teamed up to set up VanishingRights.com, a site asking people to contact your Senator today, especially if they're on the Senate Judiciary Committee (list, with phone numbers, is on the website), to let them know that (a) you support ECPA reform that requires a warrant and (b) you oppose any amendment, such as Senator Grassley's that would take away that warrant requirement. The website has tools for emailing, but also phone numbers and a possible script for calling. If you can, I highly recommend that you call rather than email, as it has a much stronger impact.

If you believe that privacy matters, and that your electronic documents deserve the basic privacy that a warrant provides, rather than just letting law enforcement sniff through your emails freely, now is the time to speak up.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, chuck grassley, ecpa, ecpa reform, pat leahy, privacy