Patrick Leahy's bill that intended to deliver warrantless email access for American internet users to the U.S. government has been shelved.
The Senator said in a press release that his latest amendments to the bill will adhere strictly to protecting privacy as opposed to the exact opposite.
The bill no longer includes mention of allowing more than 22 agencies (including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission) to access Americans' private e-mails, as well as their Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant.
Leahy, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had responded to the bill amended last week by abandoning his proposal and stressing he remains committed to protecting privacy rights for American citizens.
"I hope that all members of the Committee will join me in supporting the effort in Congress to update this law to protect Americans' privacy," he said.
Privacy groups and industry representatives are now set to vote on the revised proposal, which is due for a committee vote on Thursday. The amended bill "protects the central privacy provision that we put forward," says Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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Kami3k Pff, just like every career politician he is just protecting his a$$.Reply
*cough* Term limits *cough* -
candrwhite It's funny, I didn't read where he said 'Yes, I tried to screw over the country, the entire internet freaked out, and now... let's just ignore those things and know that I'm all about citizen's privacy'.Reply -
freggo Makes you wonder if his family's email addresses, and those of other members of Congress, would be excluded.Reply -
What it makes me wonder, is what else is in the bill? Has anyone read the several-hundred pages of legalese?Reply
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Wish that the same could be said of the "Patriot Act" which created a hugely expensive underground secretive government bureaucracy that monitors every activity of every American (data collecting). Yet, it hasn't stopped or spotlighted any terrorist activity since passage back in 2001.Reply
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thecolorblue they're already doing it anyway, this was just to cover the govt's ass for what it is ALREADY DOING.Reply
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/23/more_secrets_on_growing_state_surveillance
Watch that link!!!!!