WASHINGTON — November 30, 2015 — BSA | The Software Alliance urges the House Judiciary Committee to act quickly to modernize the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) by adopting legislation that better reflects today’s technological reality. Tuesday’s hearing is an important step towards legislation to reflect the many changes that have taken place in how we communicate and store information since the law’s enactment nearly thirty years ago.

We support the Email Privacy Act because consumers, businesses, and governments will all benefit from greater clarity in the law about the appropriate ways for law enforcement to access data. The Email Privacy Act makes critical updates to ECPA that are needed to protect the privacy of Americans’ email content and subscriber records. In addition to the inconsistent warrant requirement in ECPA, the law also is unclear on how to govern data requests that cross borders. The lack of clear rules creates unhelpful confusion and has opened the door to US law enforcement demands that could undermine user trust around the world.

Now is the time to modernize ECPA. We thank the House Judiciary Committee for their attention to this critical issue.