A top priority for TechAmerica for some time, reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) has garnered welcome attention on Capitol Hill recently.
The House Judiciary Committee?s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations held on March 19 the first of multiple hearings it will have on ECPA reform.? This hearing focused on lawful access to stored content; a key pillar of ECPA reform.? In particular, the Subcommittee reviewed the efficacy of the ?180 day rule,? whereby stored content older than 180 days under current law can be accessed by law enforcement with just a subpoena and not a warrant based on probable cause.
Testifying at the March 19 hearing was Elana Tyrangiel, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy.? Representing the Department of Justice, Ms. Tyrangiel for the first time acknowledged publicly that there is ?no principled basis? for the 180 day rule as applied to email.? She also made it clear that ECPA should not accord lesser protection to opened emails than unopened emails.? These acknowledgements are important and noteworthy.? Indeed, Ms. Tyrangiel further stated that the notion that law enforcement access to email and ?similar stored content information? from a service provider should require a warrant based on probable cause ?has considerable merit.?
However, Ms. Tyrangiel also suggested other fixes for ECPA that industry cannot support, including allowing civil agencies to access email or other content without a warrant.
On March 22, TechAmerica, along with fellow members of the Digital Due Process Coalition, met with Ms. Tyrangiel and others within the Department of Justice to discuss her testimony.? TechAmerica expressed to Ms. Tyrangiel and her team the importance of ECPA reform to cloud computing service providers and how reform is necessary to help debunk the mythology espoused overseas that content stored with U.S. cloud providers is less protected than that stored with non-U.S. providers.
In addition to the hearing noted above, Senator Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently reintroduced, along with Republican Senator Mike Lee, his ECPA reform legislation.? Among other things, S. 607 removes the ?180 day rule? from the statute.
And on March 6 Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Ted Poe (R-TX), and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced the Online Communications and Geolocation Privacy Act, H.R. 983.? This bill also expunges the 180 day rule and also ensures that law enforcement must procure a warrant based on probable cause before capturing one?s geolocation information.
TechAmerica supports both S. 607 and H.R. 983 and intends to continue to push for ECPA reform on Capitol Hill in 2013.
?
Source: http://www.techamerica.org/electronic-communications-privacy-act-reform-gathers-steam-on-the-hill/
election results Doug Martin Barack Obama & Joe Biden Am I registered to vote Voter registration Election Election results 2012
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন