ECPA Update Introduced in House, Senate
Legislation updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was introduced in the House and Senate Wednesday as expected (see 1501230028). “The Lee-Leahy ECPA Amendments Act of 2015 would prohibit an electronic communications or remote computing service provider like Gmail or…
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Facebook or Twitter, for example, from voluntarily disclosing the contents of customer emails or other communications,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on the Senate floor. Lee, who co-sponsored the Senate’s version of the bill along with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the bill requires a search warrant for all electronic communications, regardless of how many days had passed. The bill also “requires law enforcement agencies to promptly notify individuals when the government has obtained their emails from their service providers,” Leahy said on the Senate floor. Speedy passage of the ECPA update “would be a strong signal that Congress plans to move past the stalemates and partisanship of previous years and update the law to protect the privacy of Americans online,” said Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Policy Director Chris Calabrese. The House bill, the Email Privacy Act, was introduced by Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., and Jared Polis, D-Colo.