Think your emails are private? Think again

A major reason the legislation has not yet gained the widespread support one would expect is that most Americans do not realize how easy it is for the government to access their private communications or use electronic devices, including cell phones, to secretly track their whereabouts and movements. This is why the Digital Due Process Coalition — a broad coalition of business and privacy groups, including Google and Facebook — is supporting changes to the ECPA to provide a greater, but reasonable, degree of legal protection for such communications, such as contained in Leahy’s bill.

These concerns are not new; in fact, I introduced a similar proposal back in 2000 as a member of the House Judiciary Committee. That bill passed the committee with bipartisan support, but the Republican leadership at the time did not bring it to the full House for a vote.

In this digital age, it makes no sense to provide less protection against unreasonable government snooping for messages sent through electronic devices than we provide for letters sent through the mail. Hopefully, Congress will move into the 21st century and amend ECPA along the lines of Leahy’s legislation. The Fourth Amendment to our Bill of Rights demands it, and so should the citizenry.

Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He provides regular commentary to Daily Caller readers.