As we have previously noted, proposed reforms to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act recently have received increased attention. Congress appears on the verge of finally restoring email privacy protections to all emails even correspondence over 180 days old.

As of the writing of this post, H.R. 699, the Email Privacy Act, has 292 cosponsors.  Sponsored by Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., the measure is still the most-supported bill in this Congress not to receive a hearing, much less a vote.

Back in 2013, in an effort to draw attention to the outdated 1986 law governing email privacy, activists started an online White House petition calling on the Obama Administration “to support ECPA reform and to reject any special rules that would force online service providers to disclose our email without a warrant.”

The petition received 113,035 signatures within 30 days, triggering the White House to fulfill a self-imposed requirement to write a response.

Last week, after 18 months of silence the White House finally responded. The administration acknowledged that “some of ECPA’s components therefore seem outdated” and “should be reformed,” but deferred responsibility to Congress to hash out the actual fix.

Privacy activists were disappointed the administration’s statement didn’t go further. Tech Dirt observed that the “administration agrees that reform of this law… is needed. However, it does so both belatedly, vaguely and disingenuously.”

This is especially disappointing because many of the government agencies that are accessing (or potentially accessing) old emails without a warrant exist within the executive branch, such as the FBI and the IRS. Instead of closing access to private correspondence, “the administration will not force federal agencies to get a warrant to access older emails.”

As Congress prepares to debate the right balance on email privacy, it isn’t quite clear how supportive or opposed the White House will be of the final product. One hopes Congress will not be deterred by the administration’s lukewarm input and instead build off the support they have tech sector and grassroots excitement to restore Fourth Amendment protections to email.

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