The U.S. Supreme Court has voted to approve changes to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which will allow judges to issue "remote access" warrants. These warrants authorize mass computer searches, even when the targets are outside the jurisdiction of the court. EPIC criticized the proposal in a statement last year, arguing that the procedure enables searches outside traditional Fourth Amendment requirements and would not provide adequate notice to those subject to search. Congress can amend or reject the proposal. Senator Ron Wyden said today he would introduce legislation to reverse the proposal.
The FTC has reportedly expanded its investigation into Google's use of the Android operating system to exclude or demote competing services. The Commission’s increased scrutiny comes shortly after the European Commission filed formal antitrust charges against Google. Last fall, the FTC began looking at whether Google unfairly prioritizes its own products after earlier ending a similar investigation in 2012 though staff recommended litigation. EPIC previously urged the Senate and the FTC to investigate Google's dominance of essential Internet services, warning that monopoly practices implicate privacy interests. EPIC had opposed Google's acquisition of online advertiser Doubleclick, which the FTC approved over the objection of Commissioner Pamela Harbor, who cited the connection between monopoly practices and privacy violations.
The Email Privacy Act of 2016 has passed the House 419-0 The Act amends the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 to extend the warrant requirement to communications stored for more than 180 days. An earlier version of the the Act would have required notice of email searches to the user, with some exceptions. Senator Leahy tweeted that "Long past time to protect American people's emails & info stored in the cloud from warrantless searches." EPIC has recommended several other ECPA updates, including protections for location data, data minimization requirements, and end-to-end encryption for commercial e-mail services.
