US House passes email privacy Bill

Washington, April 28 

US lawmakers have approved a Bill to boost privacy protection for email and other electronic communication, closing key loopholes in digital data protection.

By a vote of 419-0, the House of Representatives yesterday approved the measure that requires court orders to access emails, text messages and data stored in the Internet "cloud" for criminal and civil investigations.

Representative Bob Goodlatte said the passage showed “broad consensus”that a 1986 law on electronic communications "is outdated and contains insufficient protections for Americans' privacy."

“The law sets forth a system to protect the privacy rights of customers and subscribers of computer network service providers and governs requests to obtain stored content, records or other information which includes stored emails, text or instant messages, documents, videos, or sound recordings stored in the cloud," the lawmaker said.

The Bill, which still must pass the Senate and get White House approval, had support from a broad coalition of technology firms, civil liberties groups and trade associations.

The Bill eliminates a provision in the 1986 law which stated that emails and other communications stored more than 180 days were effectively abandoned, and that officials would not need a warrant to access them. — AFP