THE AMAZON POSITION UPDATE

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September.

requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.' The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill 'provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by. It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The document describes the changes as 'Amendments intended to be proposed by Mr. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.ĬNET obtained a draft of the proposed amendments from one of the people involved in the negotiations with Leahy it's embedded at the end of this post. Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies - including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission - to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week. Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns, according to three individuals who have been negotiating with Leahy's staff over the changes. 8301-13578_3-57552225-38/senate-bill-rewrite-lets-feds-read-your-e-mail-without-warrants/Ī Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law, CNET has learned.

The amazon position