The Email Privacy Act would require police to get warrants to search data stored in the cloud Credit: Bill Koplitz/FEMA The U.S. House of Representatives, in a rare unanimous vote, has approved a bill to strengthen privacy protections for email and other data stored in the cloud. The Email Privacy Act would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants to search email and other data stored with third parties for longer than six months. The House on Wednesday voted 419-0 to pass the legislation and send it to the Senate. The bill, with 314 cosponsors in the House, would update a 30-year-old law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Some privacy advocates and tech companies have been pushing Congress to update ECPA since 2011. A lot has changed since ECPA first passed, including user expectations of data privacy, supporters argued. Thirty years ago, few U.S. residents had email accounts, and data storage was “finite and expensive,” said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican. “In 1986, mail was sent through the U.S. Postal Service, a search engine was called a library, tweets were the sounds made by birds in the trees, and clouds were found only in the sky,” he said. “It was unheard of that a commercial product would allow users to send and receive communications around the world for free and store those communications for years.” About 10 House members spoke in favor of the bill during floor debate. No one spoke against it. The passage of the bill is a “victory for all Americans who believe in the right to privacy,” said Representative Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat and main sponsor of the bill. Under U.S. law, police need warrants to get their hands on paper files in a suspect’s home or office and on electronic files stored on his computer or in the cloud for less than 180 days. But under ECPA, police agencies need only a subpoena, not reviewed by a judge, to demand files stored in the cloud or with other third-party providers for longer than 180 days. The American Library Association and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) both praised the house for passing the Email Privacy Act. “For consumers to feel safe with cloud computing, personal data stored remotely must have the same legal protection as data on their own computer,” Mark MacCarthy, SIIA’s senior vice president of public policy, said in a statement. The House vote “brings us one step closer to leveling the playing field for government access to data stored in the cloud.” Related content feature Windows 11 Insider Previews: What’s in the latest build? Get the latest info on new preview builds of Windows 11 as they roll out to Windows Insiders. Now updated for Build 22635.3566 for the Beta Channel, released on April 26, 2024. By Preston Gralla Apr 26, 2024 251 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Windows 11 news Dropbox adds end-to-end encryption for team folders Dropbox this week unveiled a range of features, including security updates and key management, and the ability to co-edit Microsoft 365 documents from within the file-sharing app. By Matthew Finnegan Apr 26, 2024 3 mins Cloud Storage Collaboration Software Productivity Software feature Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to 15 Explore Android's ongoing evolution with this visual timeline of versions, starting B.C. (Before Cupcake) and going all the way to 2024's Android 15 (beta) release. By JR Raphael Apr 26, 2024 23 mins Small and Medium Business Smartphones Android news analysis The unspoken obnoxiousness of Google's Gemini improvements Google's Gemini chatbot is seeing all sorts of upgrades on Android this week, but those advancements reveal a darker underlying reality. By JR Raphael Apr 26, 2024 12 mins Google Assistant Google Android Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe