The US House of Representatives has unanimously voted in favor of approving a bill that could help prevent US citizen's emails from being easily accessed by law enforcement. The Email Privacy Act, which would require security forces to gain a warrant before being able to access email accounts, was approved with a vote of 419 for the bill and no votes against, with the
bill now set to move towards the Senate on its way to becoming a law.
The
Email Privacy Act is an update to the existing 1986 Electronic Communication Privacy Act, which requires for law enforcement to obtain a subpoena for email messages that were more than 180 days old. The bill would change the need for a subpoena for a warrant, making it tougher for entities such as the police or FBI to gain access legally.
While the bill, co-sponsored by Apple and a number of other tech companies, has made its way through the House of Representatives, it didn't do so unscathed. Before the vote took place, an item requiring that the government informs the target of the search within days of accessing the email was removed.
The vote has been welcomed by privacy advocate groups, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
calling it a "long-overdue update" to the ECPA. The EFF does applaud the passage of the bill, but it does pick up on the lack of the notification requirement, calling it a "vital safeguard ensuring users can obtain legal counsel to fight for their rights," though acknowledges some companies "may continue to provide notice to users of government requests."
"The government should also be required to obtain a warrant when demanding a person's geolocation data," the group also suggests, continuing "and if the government does obtain any communications data in violation of the law, courts should have the ability to suppress that evidence in criminal prosecutions." Overall, the EFF claims the bill is "a win for user privacy," and urges the Senate to pass the EPA "without any weakening amendments before the 114th Congress ends in January."
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