Two years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union acquired documents in which the Internal Revenue Service contended its agents didn’t always need warrants to read private e-mails — and especially not if they were more than 180 days old.
Why 180 days?
Because of an antiquated law written in 1986, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). That was before the Internet as we know it had come into its own — let alone e-mail as a mainstay of communication.
Moreover, under current law, data stored locally on smartphones or computers is given more privacy protection than data stored in the Internet cloud.
Incredibly, these glaring weaknesses in privacy law remain unrevised. But that may soon change. A bipartisan coalition in both the U.S. House and Senate is finally targeting these outdated distinctions for reform. Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis is one of the two leading House sponsors to a bill introduced this week and to which at least 231 other members have already signed on.
“For too long now, Americans’ electronic communications have been subject to invasive and unwarranted searches based on laws written for the Apple 2, not the iPhone 6,” Polis said in a press release. “Today, a majority of the House of Representatives is standing up to say that the government has no more business reading your personal e-mail than it does reading your physical mail.”
Polis told us this loophole in Americans’ privacy undermines confidence in the Internet, particularly as it has been exploited by agencies involved in routine civilian functions such as tax collection, where no national security interest is at stake.
So the bill would provide that e-mail and other documents stored as cloud data could not be searched by government without a warrant, while eliminating the outdated 180-day distinction.
Most people operate under the reasonable assumption that e-mail and documents in the cloud should be just as private as their paper documents and letters. But that is not true, and it’s high time Congress moved to fix it.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
