What started as a cause for “protecting Americans’ email privacy” has now become the complete opposite of it. While Senator Patrick Leahy was all up for passing a bill to slightly bend an average American’s right to maintain online privacy, it appears that the same bill has now been quietly rewritten. The government agencies are one notch up on gaining surveillance power than they already had before.

Let’s give this GREAT news some time to sink in… Meanwhile you are coping with the trauma of having your emails checked, why don’t we all watch an Austin Powers video? This one’s called Ausitn Pussy – starring Tom Cruise as agent Austin and Gwyneth Paltrow as Dixie-Normous (a small town FBI agent – slash- single mother), the video was quite popular in its old days.

 Ausitn Pussy Tom Cruise Trailer | The National

Okay, coming back to having your emails read by Feds, without prior warning, warrant or permission, it appears that Leahy’s bill is scheduled for a final decision next week. The “revised” version of this bill has the following highlights:

[Ahem… clearing throat and cracking fingers]

• Warrantless access to an American’s electronic correspondence to over 22 federal agencies. At most, a court ordered subpoena will be needed if things get escalated.
• For the networks not offered to public, such as Universities and private organizations, a warrantless access will be granted to Federal Agencies to check emails and data without consent of the user.
• Authorization to law agencies to carry on a warrantless access to a person’s email accounts, tablet, computer, or mobile data if an “emergency” situation calls.
• Customer notification and pleas are now delayed to “10 Business Days”, instead of the “3 Business Days”- Hooah! In some cases, the customer care response can be delayed to 360 days.

Senator Patrick Leahy’s bill will compromise:

• Your Google Docs
• Facebook Wall Posts
• Facebook Status Messages
• Facebook Inbox Messages
• Gmail Chats
• Twitter Direct Messages / DMs

The list goes on and on. In addition to granting above stated “perks” to the FBI, Homeland Security and 20 other agencies, a full access to your internet account is also permitted. Meanwhile, some guys at the Department of Justice are expressing their displeasure over Leahy’s bill. For now, the Department is on the record as a platform that strongly opposes Mr. Leahy’s bill.

The head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center/ EPIC, Marc Rotenberg said, “Even the Department of Justice should concede that there’s a need for more judicial oversight.” He said this in response to the incident involving Gen. Patraeus scandal. For now, there is no good reason as to why this bill needs to be passed and approved.

For the internet companies all over the US of A, this is going to be a bitter setback. Back in the good old days, the internet companies had convinced Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. However Leahy, alongside his aides, made drastic changes to a lot of things that are yet to be approved next week.

So what do you think? Are you going to be pleading the Fifth on this? Let us know. By the way, the entire Leahy bill is embedded below for your ready reference. Feel free to give it a read.

Proposed amendments to EPCA

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2012 at 12:12 PM and is filed under Latest News, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.