Ayotte co-sponsors bill to bolster email privacy

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) on Thursday backed bipartisan legislation that would update privacy laws for email and other forms of electronic messaging.

The pending bill was introduced by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT). It would provide new language for the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which would prohibit any third-party service provider from voluntarily releasing the email or any other communication of its customers.

“In New Hampshire, we cherish our right to privacy, and it is time to update our federal privacy laws to reflect recent advances in technology and digital communications,” Ayotte explained. “This legislation would update current law — much of which was put in place nearly 30 years ago, before email was widely used — to require a search warrant based on probable cause in order for the government to access email content, while also requiring that individuals receive prompt notification when email content is disclosed subject to a warrant.”

Essentially, the new legislation would require the government to obtain an official search warrant resulting from specific probable cause in order to access any content from a person’s email or other electronic communications when that data is stored by a third-party service provider. It also would require the government to notify any person whose account has been released and provide them with a copy of the search warrant document within 10 days.