The Verge reports on the Online Communications and Geolocation Privacy Bill, a bi-partisan attempt to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). The new bill aims to apply protections to consumers’ e-mail and location data stored by third parties, requiring police and government to obtain a warrant before accessing such data. Google says of the 8,438 requests for user data between July and December 2012, 1,896 came with a warrant, and major carriers have reported 1.3 million requests in 2012. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who is co-sponsoring the bill, said, “Fourth Amendment Protections don’t stop at the Internet. Americans expect Constitutional protections to extend to their online communications and location data.”
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