Google, Microsoft, and Others Call for Limits on Government Snooping
A coalition of companies including Google, Microsoft, and AT&T have called for restrictions on the governments ability to access private data. The Data Due Process Coalition says that the existing Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) enacted in 1986 is outdated and needs an overhaul in lieu of technological advances specifically in the use of e-mail and other electronic communication.
The group is calling for revisions to the Act covering what they see as the most important issues – access to email and other private communications stored in the cloud, access to location information, and the use of subpoenas to obtain transactional data.
It wants warrants to be issued before internet providers and mobile carriers hand over such information to law enforcement agencies.
They say they want to “protect innocent Americans against government fishing expeditions through masses of communications data unrelated to a criminal suspect”.
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