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Under current law, the federal government can access your personal electronic communications — including emails, text messages, and documents stored on online servers without a warrant:

\"Law enforcement officials don’t need to obtain a warrant for emails, documents or items stored digitally in the cloud, as long as they are older than 180 days. Instead, they can nab the data with a subpoena, which does not come from a court and is often easier to obtain.\"

If passed, this bill would require law enforcement agencies to get a warrant before digging into your information from Internet service providers.

Investigating parties would also have to give a copy of the warrant to the customer they are checking out ten days in advance. The government can, however, apply for an order to extend the period of time before the customer is informed. The bill does not prevent government officials from obtaining information about a person’s location.

","official_title":"To amend title 18, United States Code, to update the privacy protections for electronic communications information that is stored by third-party service providers in order to protect consumer privacy interests while meeting law enforcement needs, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Email Privacy Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Email Privacy Act\n\nAmends the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 to prohibit a provider of remote computing service or electronic communication service to the public from knowingly divulging to a governmental entity the contents of any communication that is in electronic storage or otherwise maintained by the provider, subject to exceptions.\n\nRevises provisions under which the government may require a provider to disclose the contents of such communications. Eliminates the different requirements applicable under current law depending on whether such communications were: (1) stored for fewer than, or more than, 180 days by an electronic communication service; or (2) held by an electronic communication service as opposed to a remote computing service.\n\nRequires the government to obtain a warrant from a court before requiring providers to disclose the content of such communications regardless of how long the communication has been held in electronic storage by an electronic comm...","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.","impact":"People who use the Internet and store information in the cloud, all those scandalous emails, people involved in electronic communications investigations, law enforcement officials, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.","argument_for":"Personal emails, text messages, and other files in the cloud should have the same Fourth Amendment privacy protections as paper communications.","argument_against":"Blocking the government from accessing suspicious electronic communications poses a threat to individual and national security.","bill_type":"hr","published":true,"type":"FederalBill","id":"hr699-114","bill_id":"hr699-114","formal_id":"H.R. 699","chamber":"house","congress":114,"last_action_at":"2016-04-28T00:00:00.000Z","active":true,"enacted":false,"enacted_at":null,"vetoed":false,"last_vote_at":"2016-04-27T19:39:01.000Z","debated_on":"2016-04-25T00:00:00.000Z","congress_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/house-bill/699","plain_text_url":"https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114hr699rds/html/BILLS-114hr699rds.htm","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr699-114.png","congress_full_text_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/house-bill/699/text","is_current_congress":false,"last_version_on":"2016-04-28","related_bill_ids":["hr283-114","s356-114"],"progress":"Passed House","house_passage_result":true,"senate_passage_result":false,"position_count":1999,"committees":[{"name":"Committee on the Judiciary","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSJU","subcommittee":false},{"name":"Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSJU08","subcommittee":true}],"links":{"rollCalls":"/api/roll_calls?bill_id=hr699-114","details":"/api/bills/hr699-114/details","sharingMessage":"/api/sharing_messages/hr699-114","positionsFor":"/api/bills/hr699-114/positions/for","positionsAgainst":"/api/bills/hr699-114/positions/against"},"upcoming":false,"cosponsors_count":314,"slug":"hr699-114-email-privacy-act","latest_chamber_votes_id":"hr699-114","official_url":null,"target_video":true,"following":false,"vote_count":23160,"yea_vote_count":21887,"nay_vote_count":1232,"passed_house":true,"passed_senate":false,"vote_id":null,"my_position_id":null,"topic_ids":["crime-and-police","legal-affairs"],"issue_ids":["crime-and-police","legal-affairs","privacy","internet"],"sponsor_id":44}],"votes":[],"issues":[{"id":"crime-and-police","name":"Crime & Police","slug":"crime-and-police","description":"Federal legislation related to the prevention of crimes(from assault to organized crime to juvenile crime), firearms and explosives, correctional facilities and terrorism. 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Before Searching Your Email, Should Law Enforcement Officials Have To Get A Warrant?