Privacy groups begrudgingly OK email privacy bill changes

Privacy and civil liberties groups begrudgingly announced they were OK with changes to an e-mail privacy bill heading for a House Judiciary Committee vote. Ahead of April 13's vote, the widely supported bill went through a series of small changes, which the American Civil Liberties Union called an unnecessary sacrifice to advance the bill, which has been stalled for years. Nonetheless, the group signed on. “While we recognize that the amended version of the bill is a step forward from current law, we are disappointed by changes that eliminate critical privacy protections," ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani said, vowing to try and undo the changes as the proposal advances.

The E-mail Privacy Act, which has more than 300 co-sponsors, would ensure that the government and law enforcement obtain a warrant before forcing technology companies to hand over their customers' old e-mails. To do that, the bill would close off an outdated loophole in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) that allows those electronic communications to be obtained with a subpoena if they are more than 180-days old. That subpoena power has not been used in years after a 2010 court ruling cast doubt on the constitutionality of the demands. The original bill would have also required the government to inform the targets of ECPA warrants when their emails are handed over.