A lot has changed in the United States since 1986, but not e-mail privacy laws. A new bill that the majority of the House of Representatives now cosponsors is aiming to fix that.
The Email Privacy Act, sponsored by Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder, a Republican, and Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat, aims to curb government access to private e-mail accounts, updating decades-old privacy legislation. Currently, law enforcement officers do not need a warrant to access private e-mails that have been stored for over 180 days. Because this 180-day dispensation is not extended to hard-copy documents, critics observe that the letters in your desk drawer are better protected under current law than the information you store in your e-mail account or in “the cloud,” The Hill reports.
“Despite what the IRS or other government agencies believe, Americans do have an expectation of privacy with their emails just like they do with regular mail,” Yoder has said.
Should it pass, the Email Privacy Act would do away with the 180-day allowance for electronic information, protecting both electronic and hard-copy documents from warrantless searches by law enforcement officers.
The bill, which was introduced in the House on May 7, reached a majority 218 cosponsors on Tuesday. Yoder hopes the bill will eventually earn the support of a two-thirds majority, which would allow the House to vote on the legislation under an expedited process.
The bill has been backed by privacy advocates and the tech sector, but faces resistance from government agencies.
The bill’s counterpart in the Senate, which was sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), is currently stagnant, but Yoder hopes that the buzz surrounding the House legislation will generate momentum for the Senate bill, as well.
Privacy protection has become a hot-button issue after NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden disclosed thousands of confidential documents in June of last year.
Snowden’s leaks “caused many Americans to be aware of these tactics that the government uses,” Yoder declared, adding that the unsupervised intrusion into private emails targeted by his bill is an even “worse” offense than the NSA spying exposed by Snowden.
