Tech Letter Senate Pass HR699 Email Privacy Act
Tech Letter Senate Pass HR699 Email Privacy Act
Tech Letter Senate Pass HR699 Email Privacy Act
24,
2016
Chairman
Chuck
Grassley
Ranking
Member
Patrick
Leahy
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
United
States
Senate
United
States
Senate
Dear
Chairman
Grassley
and
Ranking
Member
Leahy,
We,
the
undersigned
civil
society
organizations,
companies
and
trade
associations,
write
to
express
our
support
for
the
Email
Privacy
Act
(H.R.
699)
which
was
recently
passed
by
the
House
of
Representatives
by
a
vote
of
419-0.
The
Act
updates
the
Electronic
Communications
Privacy
Act
(ECPA),
the
law
that
sets
standards
for
government
access
to
private
internet
communications,
to
reflect
internet
users
reasonable
expectations
of
privacy
with
respect
to
emails,
texts,
notes,
photos,
and
other
sensitive
information
stored
in
the
cloud.
The
bill
would
end
ECPAs
arbitrary
180-day
rule,
which
permits
email
communications
to
be
obtained
without
a
warrant
after
180
days.
The
Act
would
also
reject
the
Department
of
Justice
interpretation
of
ECPA
that
the
act
of
opening
an
email
removes
it
from
warrant
protection.
These
reforms
would
ratify
the
Sixth
Circuits
decision
in
U.S.
v.
Warshak,
which
held
that
email
content
is
protected
by
the
Fourth
Amendment
and
that
law
enforcement
access
requires
a
probable
cause
warrant.
Moreover,
the
changes
reflect
current
practices:
DOJ
and
FBI
policies
already
require
law
enforcement
officials
seeking
content
to
obtain
a
search
warrant,
and
many
service
providers
will
not
relinquish
their
users
content
without
one.
The
bill
passed
by
the
House
does
not
achieve
all
of
the
reforms
we
had
hoped
for.
Indeed,
it
removes
key
provisions
of
the
proposed
bill,
such
as
the
section
requiring
notice
from
the
government
to
the
customer
when
a
warrant
is
served,
which
are
necessary
to
protect
users.
However,
it
does
impose
a
warrant-for-content
rule
with
limited
exceptions.
It
represents
a
carefully
negotiated
compromise
which
preserves
existing
exceptions
to
the
warrant
requirement,
provides
a
new
ability
for
civil
agencies
to
obtain
access
to
previously
public
commercial
content,
and
maintains
the
governments
ability
to
preserve
records
and
obtain
emails
from
employees
of
corporations.
We
are
particularly
pleased
that
the
bill
does
not
carve
out
civil
agencies
from
the
warrant
requirement,
which
would
have
expanded
government
surveillance
power
and
undermined
the
very
purpose
of
the
bill,
or
contain
unnecessary
and
overbroad
mandatory
emergency
exceptions.
For
these
reasons,
we
support
H.R.699
and
urge
the
Committee
to
pass
it
immediately
and
without
any
amendments
that
would
weaken
the
protections
afforded
by
the
bill.
Sincerely,
ACT
|
The
App
Association
Adobe
Amazon
Microsoft
National
Association
of
Criminal
Defense
Lawyers
Niskanen
Center
New
America's
Open
Technology
Institute
Newspaper
Association
of
America
NetChoice
Less
Government
R
Street
Institute
Reform
Government
Surveillance
Snapchat
Software
&
Information
Industry
Association
Sonic
Taxpayers
Protection
Alliance
TechFreedom
TechNet
Twitter
Venture
Politics
U.S.
Chamber
of
Commerce
Yahoo
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