Compliance Management, Government Regulations, Privacy

Email privacy bill gains more support in House

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A new bill introduced by lawmakers is aiming at making it more difficult for law enforcement to get access to emails.

On Wednesday Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) introduced the Email Privacy Act which would make law enforcement officials obtain a warrant for emails and digital documents, a process which now does not exist, according to The Hill.

Under the current law – established in 1986 – so long as documents are older than 180 days, law enforcement can gain access to them. Should the new bill pass, the same rules would apply regarding warrants as they do for obtaining normal paper documents.

Yoder and Polis attempted to pass a similar bill last year, but failed to get the support it needed in the House Judiciary Committee. However, thus far they've gotten support from more than half of the House.

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