The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved legislation that would require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge before they can review a person’s emails or other electronic communications.
The bill moves to the full Senate for its next vote. It makes it slightly more difficult for the government to access the content of a consumer’s emails and private files from Google, Yahoo and other Internet providers. Under the current law, the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a warrant is needed only for emails less than 6 months old.
The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, called the existing law “anachronistic.”
News Tribune news services
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