Leahy Introduces Update to Electronic Communications Privacy Act

Would boost protections for electronic communications from unreasonable search and seizure

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/19/2013 4:37:35 PM

On the same day the House Judiciary Committee was talking about updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy was already doing something about it. Along with Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), Leahy introduced a bill to update ECPA to protect digital privacy rights.

ECPA outlines the Fourth Amendment protections of stored communications from unreasonable search and seizure, but was first passed in 1986 and has not been updated since 2001. "No one could have imagined just how the Internet and mobile technologies would transform how we communicate and exchange information today," Leahy said in a statement.  "Privacy laws written in an analog era are no longer suited for privacy threats we face in a digital world." 

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2013 would, among other things:

1. "[E]stablishes a search warrant requirement in order for the government to obtain the content of Americans' emails and other electronic communications, when those communications are stored with a third-party service provider.
2. "[E]liminates the outdated '180-day' rule that calls for different legal standards for the government to obtain email content depending upon the age of an email, and
3. "[R]equires that the government notify an individual whose electronic communications have been disclosed within 10 days  of obtaining a search warrant."

Lee's office said the bill is backed by "50 privacy, civil liberties, civil rights and tech industry leaders."