Privacy Blog: Emails Closer to Warrant Protection as Enormously Popular Bill Advances
By: Inhwan Lee (Panel 2)
April 14th, 2016
A legislation to amend the Stored Communications Act of 1986 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee unanimously and moved forward in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 13.
According to the article, as for now, law enforcement and civil agencies can ask a service provider to turn over such aged private communications with only a subpoena, which is subject to less judicial oversight than a warrant. However, the legislation would eliminate the present-day ability of government agents to acquire emails older than 180 days without a warrant.
Although a bill that was introduced previously was defeated last year and it is still uncertain whether the legislation will become law this time, it should be followed carefully whether such extension will bring the privacy protection that was intend to. Further, as there are still controversy remains on the content of the bill, additional modification which might be occur during the legislative review should be carefully reviewed also.