Cloud Computing Prompts Push for Privacy Law Rewrite

“Members of a broad coalition advocating an overhaul of a more
than two-decades-old privacy law took to Capitol Hill Friday
afternoon, convening a briefing for congressional staffers to
champion the cause.

“They argued that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or
ECPA, has fallen lamentably out of step with the way that people
are using computers and the Internet, particularly with regard to
cloud computing and location-based services.

“ECPA, signed into law in 1986, established a procedural
framework for law enforcement authorities to obtain wire and
electronic information, including files stored on a computer.

“But in the age of the cloud, when users’ e-mail, documents and
social networking information are scattered on far-flung corporate
servers, a law governing access to online data conceived at a time
when few outside of the research and defense communities had heard
of the Internet is in sore need of an update, according to the
Digital Due Process coalition.”

Complete Story