Technology

Does 25-Year-Old Legislation Adequately Protect Internet Privacy?

A quarter century ago today, Wired reports, then-President Ronald Reagan signed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act into law.

At the time, the act was more than sufficient in terms of digital protection, as we didn’t use cellphones, nor was there a world wide web where people could write to each other using “email.”

It’s hosted email providers — Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. — that Wired notes are now left unprotected by ECPA, which states that authorities can access email accounts on third-party servers if they are six months old or older without warrant. Wired continues:

ECPA was adopted at a time when e-mail, for example, wasn’t stored on servers for a long time. Instead, e-mail was held there briefly before recipients downloaded it to their inbox on software running on their own computer.

During the Reagan administration, e-mail more than six months old was assumed abandoned, and that’s why the law allowed the government to get it without a warrant. At the time, there wasn’t much of any e-mail for the authorities to acquire because a consumer’s hard drive — not the cloud — hosted their inbox.

But technology has evolved dramatically following EPCA’s passage. E-mail often remains stored on cloud servers indefinitely, in gigabytes upon gigabytes. That means the authorities may access gigs of e-mails, or other cloud-stored content, without warrants if it’s older than six months. The law, believe it or not, still considers as abandoned any e-mail or other files housed on servers for more than 6 months.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, Wired reports, introduced a bill to update this law, of which he was the lead author in 1986, but that he has yet to receive a co-sponsor for it. Leahy proposes needing a warrant for all content.

In a statement in May 2011, Leahy said “Since the Electronic Communications Privacy Act was first enacted in 1986, ECPA has been one of our nation’s premiere privacy laws. But, today, this law is significantly outdated and out-paced by rapid changes in technology and the changing mission of our law enforcement agencies after September 11.  Updating this law to reflect the realities of our time is essential to ensuring that our federal privacy laws keep pace with new technologies and the new threats to our security.”

At the beginning of the year, the New York Times also reported Internet advocacy groups stating the law is outdated:

Many Internet companies and consumer advocates say the main law governing communication privacy — enacted in 1986, before cellphone and e-mail use was widespread, and before social networking was even conceived — is outdated, affording more protection to letters in a file cabinet than e-mail on a server.

They acknowledge that access to information is important for fighting crime and terrorism, but say they are dealing with a patchwork of confusing standards that have been interpreted inconsistently by the courts, creating uncertainty.

Wired writes that 9/11 sentiment part of the reason why the government is maintaining the six month or older rule even though some groups think it should be updated with a change in the times and technology. Wired reports Associate Deputy Attorney General James Baker as saying that requiring a warrant for all content would have “collateral consequences to criminal law enforcement and the national security.”


Comments (16)

  • FreedomIQ
    Posted on October 25, 2011 at 1:45pm

    Most are so dumb and intellectually lazy that they’ll claim they want privacy but will bend over and allow Uncle Sam to molest their private emails and other Internet stuff. Again, a complete contradictory premise that so-called Americans adhere to.

    Are there any freedom-loving Americans left on American soil? Just curious. ‘Cause I don’t see em.

    Report Post »  
  • Vechorik
    Posted on October 24, 2011 at 5:26pm

    I think this is more about Obama’s email by phone regarding Solyndra

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wK5upgGQkk

    Report Post »  
  • americathebankrupt
    Posted on October 24, 2011 at 2:23pm

    Updating EPCA would not do any good unless you get rid of the Patriot Act.

    Report Post » americathebankrupt  
  • sandmannc40
    Posted on October 23, 2011 at 10:44am

    I agree with BOSPREADNWEALTH, the system needs to be updated. But with this bunch of crooks in Washington I will have to wait until the corrupted politicians are removed and hopefully imprisoned before we change any law. They pass laws that they exempt themselves from….. It is for ALL AMERICANS including them… or are they above the law? Not in my book. If anything they are breaking the law almost everyday and as such should be found guilty and put down in Mississippi or one of those other hot southern states on a chain gang breaking big rocks into little rocks…..

    Report Post » sandmannc40  
  • BOspreadnwealth
    Posted on October 22, 2011 at 1:05pm

    It probably should be updated but there is no way I would trust this government to protect our freedoms and liberties. Most likely if they did update it the end result would be more of our freedom and liberty taken away.

    Report Post »  
  • scout n ambush
    Posted on October 22, 2011 at 3:06am

    I know if they change it they will figure out some way to use it to their advantage. Is it possible that this has something to do with the UN wanting to police the net read a news article about this and it‘s for cyber security yes if obe can’t get a internet kill switch the un will do it for him so he can fake stupidity .It has to be done in order for all the other countries to be able to control what their citizens see and hear .news article might have been on reverse spins

    Report Post » scout n ambush  
    • scout n ambush
      Posted on October 22, 2011 at 3:12am

      it was at blacklisted news

      Report Post » scout n ambush  
    • Robert Hawk
      Posted on October 22, 2011 at 5:42am

      The reason its and issue is because the Stoic-Sophist based Socialists and Communists, want to rewrite the law in a way that provides them total control over all electronic communication. Lets just leave it as it is for now and learn to archive our e-mail on an off site and private server once a quarter.
      Or created your own e-mail server (Its not a difficult task). The government having access to your e-mail is the same as the SS or KGB infiltrating private citizens with spies. If you add that to the Stoic-Sophist spin doctors who are hard at work such as those who work with David Axelrod or John Podesta, its easy to see how they can use that data as a weapon against any person who disagrees with them politically.

      No…. don’t change the law, let it stand for now and simply protect the data you want to be kept private. Remember, contacting a government official should not be considered private, so be careful and be smart. The last court case I was involved with, contained a vast amount of discovery via e-mail. The smart ones had erased or privately archived all of their e-mail or had simply relied on private conversations where no e-mail was written. Think before you start typing and never use a keyboard when you are angry. The rule should be don‘t write it down if you don’t want it discoverable, and don’t speak it over the internet (VoIP) or on a wireless phone if you don’t want someone listening to in.

      Report Post » Robert Hawk  
    • Mil-Dot
      Posted on October 22, 2011 at 8:24am

      Hawk you and the others are exactly right. They want to usurp any protections afforded by the older legislation. They want to spy on our every move because they are afraid and they know that the people are coming for them. They want to put off the inevitable for as long as possible and they see our privacy as another weapon that they can use against us. It is not going to work though.

      Report Post »  
  • tomf
    Posted on October 22, 2011 at 12:52am

    Look at the other side, does this means that all e-mails by congress and their minions can be considered abandoned after six months and read by anyone, if they are on Government servers?. What if they are contract servers? Are all e-mails by the justice department, the executive branch and the courts are fair game after six months?. I am all for any thing that opens up government.

    Report Post »  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on October 22, 2011 at 12:26am

    Does the gov’t respect the law? If it does not then privacy is irrelevant.

    If the gov’t respects the law then this law needs to be updated. PRONTO

    Report Post » Stoic one  
    • Robert Hawk
      Posted on October 22, 2011 at 5:55am

      I would expect a Stoic to support anything the government wants to do. After all the entire lot of what is wrong with America these days is directly attached to the belief and assimilation of Stoic-Sophist doctrine. Its the based doctrine for ALL that we call Socialism, Communism, Progressivism, Objectivism, Darwinism and Liberation Theology. That fact is completely provable. The Apostle Paul speaks out against this very doctrine (Colossians 2) which he encountered in Acts 17. And today we find his comments to be as true and fresh as if they had be written only 5 minutes ago.

      We have allowed the entire world to be redefined based on Stoic-Sophist doctrine. Stoic-Sophists have adopted it as our national religion, Stoic-Sophists have written laws respecting it as our national religion, Stoic-Sophist have force the remainder of us to assimilate under their doctrine and everyone acts as if its not occurring. We are now bound by a Theocracy (Sotic-Sophism) and we are no longer a free and independent republic. The majority of laws established since the 1960s were written and intended so as to allow the assimilation of the USA under the Theocracy which is based on Stoic-Sophism.
      The removal of the phrase “the general welfare” from the constitution as an independent and individual activity without bounds has been the bane of our existence and has allowed Stoic-Sophist doctrine to be injected into our lives and us as free men to become slaves to that doctrine.

      Report Post » Robert Hawk  
  • garyM
    Posted on October 22, 2011 at 12:14am

    no, there is no privacy anymore, everything on facebook could be public regardless of where you have your privacy settings. Most websites collect email addresses and other website traffic and sell them to the spammers. No one should ever post anything anywhere they wouldn’t want public!

    Report Post »  
  • banjarmon
    Posted on October 22, 2011 at 12:09am

    As an American Citizen, a warrant should be required…if your not a US citizen tough s-h-!-T!!!!!!

    Report Post » banjarmon  

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