House Passes Email and Cloud Privacy Reform Bill

April 27, 2016 5:00 pm

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WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill today that updates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to require the government to get a warrant to read a person’s emails or access information stored online in the cloud.

The American Civil Liberties Union supported the bill and is now pushing for passage of a Senate version.

Neema Singh Guliani, ACLU legislative counsel, had this reaction:

“The level of bipartisan support for this bill is a reflection of public’s strong belief that the government must respect and protect privacy rights in the digital age. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to pass this important bill and strengthen it by including a requirement that the government inform people when it forces companies to turn over their information.”

More on the privacy implications of the bill is at:
https://www.aclu.org/letter/aclu-vote-recommendation-urging-house-vote-yes-hr-699-email-privacy-act

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