The United States House of Representatives has used a rare show of unanimity to approve legislation requiring the government to get a search warrant if it wants people's older emails.
The legislation would require federal agencies to get a warrant before they can force an email service provider like Google to provide access to data more than 180 days old. Also protected would be older, stored electronic documents like videos, text messages and photos.
The bill updates a three-decade-old law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, enacted when the use of email was rare. Under it, warrants have been required for government access to emails under 6 months old, but older data has been considered abandoned and can be obtained by the government without prior legal approval.
Current law also allows US government access without a warrant to any emails that recipients have opened. The House-passed bill would require a warrant for investigators to see those documents.
The House approved the bill on Wednesday by 419-0. Its top sponsors are Republican Representative Kevin Yoder and Democratic Representative Jared Polis.
A similar, bipartisan Senate bill has yet to advance there.
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