Have the Internet and the way we store data changed since 1986? Of course they have, but our laws haven’t kept pace with technological advancement, leaving our cloud storage vulnerable to warrantless searches by police officers. Recently, TechFreedom, and a diverse coalition of tech and liberty-minded groups, wrote to Congressional leaders urging them to bring important privacy reforms up for a vote.

Specifically the bipartisan bills would update the laughably outdated Electronic Privacy Communications Act (ECPA), written in 1986, which says that data stored in the cloud should be afforded less protection than data stored locally. We say:

Removing uncertainty about the standards for government access to data stored online will encourage consumers and companies, including those outside the U.S., to utilize these services.

See the full text of the coalition letter here, and our other work on ECPA, privacy, and surveillance, especially:

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