You may not be able to hear me shouting,”THIS.” but I’ve uploaded the text of the Conyers and Nadler bill, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Modernization Act of 2012, here (their press release can be found here).
The bill is what many of us have hoped for. It not only sets a warrant standard, but it mandates notification (even if delayed) to subscribers or users whose data have been turned over to the government or other agencies, and it would provide us with oodles of data by having the courts reporting on their activities to the Administrative Office of the United States Court. That office would then compile data and report annually to Congress. Providers would also have to report, but their identities will be shielded from public disclosure.
Information can still be provided voluntarily under sections of 2702, but now we’d actually get data on how often such disclosures resulted in criminal prosecutions.
And by simply inserting “electronic” in Section 2518(10) of title 18, United States Code, the bill would also provide for a suppression remedy that currently exists for wire searches, something that’s been badly needed for years.
There’s a lot of meat to this bill, and I expect the privacy community will get behind it. Kudos to Representatives Conyers and Nadler for proposing this.
Thanks to Chris Soghoian for sending me the bill’s text.