12.06.2016 - 09:20 [ Just Security ]

Beware of the Emergency Exception Loophole in the Email Privacy Act

The Email Privacy Act, which passed the House 419-0, is slated for consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week. The legislation updates the now 30-year old Electronic Communications Privacy Act to, among other things, require law enforcement to generally get a warrant before it seizes the content of one’s emails. (The current statute only includes a warrant requirement for emails that are stored for 180 days or less.)