Rainey Reitman writes:
Wednesday, Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) introduced legislation (H.R. 983) that would ensure law enforcement obtains a warrant before accessing our private electronic communications or location data. This bill, while not a complete fix, is trying to provide a much-needed update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986. Though forward-thinking when it was first introduced, ECPA unfortunately was written for the technologies of the 80’s – long before the advent of cloud storage, modern webmail, and location-aware tablets and phones. ECPA’s outdated language has left loopholes which the government has attempted to exploit by arguing that they can access your old emails and documents you store in the cloud without going to a judge and getting a court-issued warrant.