Update Privacy Laws for the Digital Age

[Commentary] Americans routinely are bombarded with news stories about invasive new surveillance technologies. But Congress has yet to pass even the most basic legislation on the issue: a bill to ensure that law-enforcement agents cannot read Americans' private e-mails without search warrants. We will be reintroducing legislation to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and safeguard the privacy of e-mail and other information stored in "the cloud."

In the 113th Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved this bipartisan bill, but it has yet to become law. The proposal we will soon introduce requires the government to obtain a search warrant, based on probable cause, before searching through the content of Americans' e-mail or other electronic communications stored with a service provider such as Google, Facebook, or Yahoo!. The government is already prohibited from tapping our phones or forcibly entering our homes to obtain private information without warrants. The same privacy protections should apply to our online communications. Congress should pass ECPA reform this year, and President Barack Obama should sign these important privacy reforms into law.