Email Privacy Act gets 218 sponsors in House, advocates urge vote

As the Email Privacy Act reached 218 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, assuring enough votes to pass the House, privacy advocates are urging legislators to act now to move it forward with a clean vote.

Saying that under the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, online communications aren't currently protected by the Fourth Amendment, Kate McAuliff of Americans for Tax Reform, a member of the Digital 4^th coalition, in a statement called for the act be “brought to the floor without amendments for a recorded vote.”

The act, like a bill recently passed in California, would ensure  “Americans' electronic communications can be protected from unwarranted government intrusion,” Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement, by requiring government agents and law enforcement to obtain a warrant to compel service providers to release customers' online communications.