DALLAS – Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) president Tom Giovanetti released the following statement regarding H.R. 387, The Email Privacy Act.
“On January 6, we wrote that “email privacy could be a quick win for President Trump and Congress,” and we’re delighted to see that Congress has apparently taken up our suggestion. We’ve learned that the House of Representatives has added H.R. 387, the Email Privacy Act, to the suspension calendar for Monday, which means that it could come up for a vote on Monday.
IPI joined a number of other organizations on January 30 urging that the House act to bring the operational law regarding personal digital data back into sync with basic Fourth Amendment rights, and the Email Privacy Act would have this effect.
Importantly, this legislation has nothing to do with preventing or prosecuting terrorism, but rather simply corrects lack of foresight in legislation passed 30 years ago, long before digital data became such a pervasive part of normal life. If the Act becomes law, digital data older than 180 days would still be considered active rather than ‘abandoned,’ and would still be subject to the normal requirements governing analog information.
The bill already passed the House 419-0 in the previous Congress, so it’s popular and bi-partisan—a slam dunk for Congress, for the new president, and especially for Americans.”