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House Passes Email Privacy Act, Requiring Warrants For Obtaining Emails (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 699, the Email Privacy Act, sending it on to the Senate and from there, hopefully anyhow, to the President. The yeas were swift and unanimous. The bill, which was introduced in the House early last year and quickly found bipartisan support, updates the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, closing a loophole that allowed emails and other communications to be obtained without a warrant. It's actually a good law, even if it is arriving a couple of decades late. "Under current law, there are more protections for a letter in a filing cabinet than an email on a server," said Congresswoman Suzan Delbene during the debate period. An earlier version of the bill also required that authorities disclose that warrant to the person it affected within 10 days, or 3 if the warrant related to a government entity. That clause was taken out in committee -- something trade groups and some of the Representatives objected to as an unpleasant compromise.
But they can execute it anyway? Nice!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I can't believe the Congress is actually doing something worthwhile. I think hell just froze over.
The 3 letter agencies are going to do what they want, regardless of what the "law" says, just like they do now.
..it requires a warrant they never have to reveal the existence of? That will work well.
what? iirc gmail (for example) keeps deleted email up to one year after it's deleted.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Good for us! Vote early and often. Pretend this shite matters. Preserving rights and improving one's government is the very best legacy that can be left to your children, grand or otherwise.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
What other exceptions and riders did they wrote into the bill for themselves or their enforcers?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
They put the Constitution above the people.
You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
You think that the NSA is looking through your actual "inbox"? Idiot. They are INTERCEPTING the data...by the time you've deleted anything they've already got a dozen copies. Dumbass.
That was the offer of IMAP... just leave it all on the server. See what that brings us?
(2) SUBSCRIBER OR CUSTOMER INFORMATION.—A provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service shall, in response to an administrative subpoena authorized by Federal or State statute, a grand jury, trial, or civil discovery subpoena, or any means available under paragraph (1), disclose to a governmental entity the—
“(A) name;
“(B) address;
“(C) local and long distance telephone connection records, or records of session times and durations;
“(D) length of service (including start date) and types of service used;
“(E) telephone or instrument number or other subscriber or customer number or identity, including any temporarily assigned network address; and
“(F) means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number);
of a subscriber or customer of such service.
What? Congress did a possibly good thing?
Yeah, but only out of cowardice. They're each terrified their own email might be abused. Sometimes bad motives like fear can produce good results, eh?
However, if you wait until the public isn't looking (which will take about 7 minutes given the current conditions) they'll add the rider in the fine print that the legal protections only applies to their OWN email (and perhaps the email of their campaign donors and future employers).
Still government of the corporations, by the lawyers, for the richest 0.1%.
Same as it ever was, and remember not to eat the yellow snow.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
I don't understand why law enforcement objects to informing the subject of a legal warrant after ten days. James Comey, director of the FBI, claims that access to someone's email can instantly solve all crimes without any further police work required.
In other political news, Ted Cruz just announced his selection for vice president:
http://cache3.asset-cache.net/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
They've been saying that for more than 20 years now. How's that working out? What country are you moving to when she wins the presidency?
Learn to love Alaska
The bill has NOT been passed by the House yet.
It has been passed by the Committee on Judiciary and it looks like it should be on its way to the House floor for a general vote. Given that there are 314 co-sponsors it should pass there, BUT as yet that House vote has not happened yet.
This one already required search warrants.
...I'll see myself out
They could create an international version of the NSA with domestic spying done by other countries agents.
There is a difference between requiring a warrant and magical folders appearing on your desk and not being able to use it.
This is not the same as making the government be responsible to preventing foreign intelligence agencies from spying on US citizens.
Doesn't change anything. PRISM can still read your mail as it leaves a server.
It should require a warrent, iff the email is encrypted. By doing that, it will actively encourage every email client to include encryption AND to make it the default. We need a way to encourage ALL emails to be encrypted.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Oddly, trash like that live to go to Scandinavian nations. But most nations will take trash like him. Sadly, we are likely stuck with him.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Approved almost unanimously by republican and democrat alike, then continued by the current administration for two terms. So what is your point exactly?
(preemptive troll mod suicide)... ... is that you could put a server in a filing cabinet.
(preemptive troll mod suicide)... ... is that you can put an email server INSIDE a filing cabinet.
You have NO IDEA of how PAT act passed. It was a HIDDEN VOTE. They did it without anybody being in the congress because so many dems were opposed to it.
And as one that actually worked on the pat act, I doubt that the current admin had a clue of what was done and how far it had gone. I worked on aspects of it and I had a clue, but it went much further than what I knew of.