WASHINGTON – Today the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice of the tech sector, announced its strong support for the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 387), which the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on today. In a letter to members of Congress, ITI emphasized the importance of the popular bipartisan legislation supported unanimously in the House of Representatives in the last Congressional session, which would reform the 30-year-old Email Communications Privacy Act by requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access user content, giving emails the same Constitutional protections granted to the papers and effects we keep in our homes.

ITI scores votes that are top priorities for the tech sector. The following is text of the letter sent to the Members of the House of Representatives announcing our intention to key vote the legislation:

February 6, 2017

The Honorable Paul Ryan

Speaker of the House

US House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Democratic Leader

US House of Representatives

Re: H.R. 387, the Email Privacy Act

Dear Speaker Ryan and Leader Pelosi:

On behalf of the 60 members of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), I write to express our strong support for H.R. 387, the Email Privacy Act. Given the importance of this measure to the high-tech community, we will consider scoring votes in support of final passage of the Email Privacy Act in our 115th Congressional Voting Guide.

Since the enactment of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) in 1986, the technological functions of email have changed tremendously, new forms of electronic communications have been introduced, and all forms of electronic communications have become deeply ingrained in our everyday lives. Thirty years ago, most Americans could not envision a connected world where their email would be stored anywhere but the end point of their hard drives. Today, electronic communications – which often contain the most sensitive details about our lives – are largely stored in the cloud. Rather than printing this content to store in our filing cabinet, we save it to folders in the cloud. Under the 30-year-old ECPA, however, electronic communications older than 180 days do not enjoy the same Constitutional protections granted to the papers and effects we keep in our homes.

The Email Privacy Act would align the analog and digital worlds by requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access online user content, regardless of the age of that content, just as they would be required to do to access the contents of a desk drawer in your home. In doing so, H.R. 387 provides much needed reforms to the antiquated ECPA to reflect both the way we utilize email and the expectations of privacy we have in that email today. The bill also unites 108 Members of Congress on a single policy and is strongly supported by ITI member companies.

We urge you to support the Email Privacy Act when it comes to the House floor for a vote today.

Sincerely,

Dean Garfield

President and CEO

cc: Members of the House of Representatives

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