The House voted unanimously, 419-0, on Wednesday to bring the law that protects the privacy of Americans’ emails into the 21st century.
The Email Privacy Act would reform the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act by requiring all federal agencies (with few exceptions) to get a warrant before searching old digital communications stored in the cloud by companies like Google and Facebook.
“In 1986, the assumption was that if you left your email on a server it was abandoned, like trash on a street corner,” said Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., one of the bill’s authors, during a GOP press conference Wednesday morning. He said it “restores the Fourth Amendment, and treats email with the same protections as paper mail.”
Technology companies and privacy advocates alike immediately took to the Twitterverse to celebrate — because the bill would protect innovation in cloud computing just as much as it would protect Fourth Amendment rights.
Now they are urging the Senate to take action.
It's not often the House passes something 419–0 but it just happened on email #privacyreform. On to Senate. https://t.co/gpqBlGAg62 #ECPA
— ACLU National (@ACLU) April 27, 2016
Today's unanimous passage of #ECPA reform is a huge victory for Internet users. We urge the Senate to take action: https://t.co/tTdGeDRNwU
— Google Public Policy (@googlepubpolicy) April 27, 2016
Glad to see #HR699, the #EmailPrivacyAct pass, #ECPA was so outdated, when it was written I was using a 512k Mac! pic.twitter.com/zXYCQuyZ5x
— Blake Farenthold (@farenthold) April 27, 2016
#ECPA reform just passed the House 419-0. The Senate should take up the Email Privacy Act immediately
— Jake Laperruque (@JakeLaperruque) April 27, 2016
holy shit. 419-0 for ECPA reform. Word up.
— Joseph Lorenzo Hall (@JoeBeOne) April 27, 2016
The exceptions being the NSA and FBI presumably.
And, let me guess: the Bill contains cryptic language that exonerates all past illegal actions.
Sins all washed away.
It was important to get that all behind us.
Next up, encryption!
like this will stop the FBI playing the bully on the block
They have been steadily eroding our privacy and civil liberties at least since 2001. Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, FISA Revisions Act, NDAA 2012, indefinite detention, arbitrary assassination, etc. etc.
Now, the House of Representatives votes unanimously on a bill to make our e-mails more private? No way. I’ll have to dig into this more, but there absolutely has to be something sinister in this bill that expands government power in one way or another.
2001? 2001!? Try 1873, newb! Freedom of speech died then.
What is Metadata?
This short video, will explain what Metadata is and why it’s important to businesses and or government’s.
https://youtu.be/HXAstVP3-y0
Jun 7, 2013 William Binney – The Government is Profiling You (The NSA is Spying on You)
https://youtu.be/qB3KR8fWNh0
I would have expected from The Intercept a far more detailed report. This very disappointing coverage fails to exam and to criticise the serious flaws that this bill has, and the critical protections which have been removed.
January 9, 2014 500 Years of History Shows that Mass Spying Is Always Aimed at Crushing Dissent
*It’s Never to Protect Us From Bad Guys*, No matter which government conducts mass surveillance, they also do it to crush dissent, and then give a false rationale for why they’re doing it.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/01/government-spying-citizens-always-focuses-crushing-dissent-keeping-us-safe.html
Hmmm, a House of Representatives almost never unanimous on anything all of a sudden wants to protect old emails, supposedly for all citizens. Why then am I suspicious it’ll somehow end up last-minute re-engineered as necessary to really be about protecting one person’s emails, one they now believe will be the next president, in a timely enough fashion to preempt any possible indictments by Justice? Oh, I know what it is, Congress’ perpetually staged results and the government’s rule of law hypocrisy always makes me cynical. Not to mention, too-unanimous anything from those corrupt bozos while claiming a great urgency is a BIG red flag that should never be taken at face value, ever.
on quick & dirty read some language pops as potentially irksome, but in general the bill purports to update the 18 USC 2701 – 2711 to cover customer/subscriber information and coms maintained in electronic storage by third parties. see those sections here: https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/privacy/18usc2701-2711.htm
noted verbiage from draft bill:
“to protect consumer privacy interests”
this consumer would prefer statute to describe him as person, citizen or even entity when preserving his or her rights.
“…if the provider is not authorized to access the contents of any such communications for purposes of providing any services other than storage or computer processing”
I think Gmail for one is permitted to scan my content for advertising purposes, conveniently excusing that service from this bill, arguably. not certain my read is right on that.
“entity … is not required to provide notice to a subscriber or customer”
law enforcement not required to give user notice of search/seizure/disclosure.
“a provider may notify a subscriber or customer”
service provider may give user notice, except where otherwise prohibited, such as may sec letter, eg.
the balance looks pretty standard. Echo aclu’s reported concerns. also, third-party doctrine may moot warrant requirement, or may not, depending on service, jurisdiction, whim of law enforcement, determination of high court.
https://www.aclu.org/letter/aclu-vote-recommendation-urging-house-vote-yes-hr-699-email-privacy-act
“…While we support the current version of H.R. 699, we were disappointed that the version of the bill voted out of the House Judiciary Committee gutted a key privacy protection contained in the original bill, co-sponsored by 314 members of this chamber. Specifically, the bill eliminated individuals’ basic right to be notified if the government requests access to electronic content information. The result is that Americans will have no guarantee that they would even know when the government accesses their most sensitive content information –be they intimate photos, financial documents, oreven personal emails.
Absent notice, individuals will be unable to raise legal challenges or pursue remedies in cases in which the government wrongly accesses their information. Required government notice is not a novel concept; some state ECPA statutes and federal statutes (such as the Wiretap Act) require notice in cases in which the government seeks information through third parties. In today’s world, where third parties increasingly hold individuals’information, such notice is critical to ensure that Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights are adequately protected.
Indeed, such notice also acts as an important check against government overreach and abuse. We urge members to work to reinstate these provisions as this bill advances or remedy these deficiencies in future legislation…”
The bill is seriously flawed by what you have pointed out, and additionally the bill also fails to prohibit illegally obtained electronic information from being used in a trial.
So to sum it up :
1. As individuals don’t have to notified when the government accesses their emails, personal photographs, and financial information, you won’t have the opportunity to mount a legal challenge, since you won’t know.
2. Nothing prohibits the government or law enforcement from using the illegally obtained electronic information as evidence in trial, again giving you no legal right to challenge it’s use. This does not deincentivise law enforcement from acting illegally.
So there you have it – sounds great but it is not. No small wonder it passed with such a total, overwhelming majority. it’s about as useless as a chocolate teapot !
I’m with barabbas on this one, it seems too good to be true.
This is a joke, right?
… is true.
here is link to bill
http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20160425/HR699.pdf
there has to be a devil in the details… checking
beyond my decryption abilities
the bill uses number coding references – “lawyer encryption”
My question is, how does this help Clinton and her emails?
Crooked Hillary is above the law, just the same as her Wall Street banking lobbyists, elite corporate sponsors and the rest of her establishment chums.Sadly Trump is the single and only outside chance of bringing Hillary to book, but I wouldn’t bet on him, necessarily, sorting that one out either.