ECPA

Mr. Slater said it best, so I'll just pass along his messages:

Peace, here's the difference between your legal right to privacy online and your legal right to privacy offline: If the government wants to obtain a document stored in your home file cabinet, the law requires a warrant signed by a judge. The warrant needs to show that there's probable cause that such an intrusion of your privacy will expose proof of illegal activity. Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, however, some government agencies argue that they don't need a warrant to access your online data. They simply send a subpoena -- which doesn't require a judge's signature or the same burden of proof -- to the Internet service. Sign the "We the People" petition to let the White House know that the law should protect the privacy of your electronic communications. To be clear, Google requires a search warrant before releasing any data relating to contents of Gmail or other Google services. That said, the number of requests from law enforcement to Google are growing -- in the first half of this year, Google received 10,918 requests for information about our users from government investigators in the US. That's an increase of 205% since 2009. It's time for the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to protect our privacy in more than name only -- a warrant should always be required when the government wants to read your email or any other form of online communication. Do you agree? Sign the White House petition now: http://takeaction.withgoogle.com/white-house-petition More soon, Derek Slater Google Inc. © 2013 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

We're almost out of time, Peace. At midnight on Thursday, the "We the People" petition demanding that the government update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) will close. In order to ensure a response, we need to cross the threshold of 100,000 signatures. That goal is within reach, but we're not there yet. As I write this, we still have 23,274 signatures to go. Take two minutes to sign the petition and tell the government that the stuff you store online deserves the same legal protections as the stuff you keep in your home. Congress passed ECPA in the 1980s. The way we use the Internet has changed immensely in the nearly 30 years since the passage of this law -- but the law has not kept pace with this change. If the "We the People" petition gets more than 100,000 signatures by midnight tomorrow night, the White House will be obligated to respond. Add your name now: http://takeaction.withgoogle.com/white-house-petition To sign the petition, you'll create an account, click a link in the confirmation email, and then click once more to sign that petition. It's just a few clicks to help protect the Fourth Amendment, but they're clicks that will demand a response from the White House. Thank you, Derek Slater Google Inc. © 2013 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

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