Citing cell phone tapping, Leahy calls for privacy hearings

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http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/80953-citing-cell-phone-tapping-case-leahy-calls-for-privacy-hearings

Electronic privacy laws are "woefully outdated" and must be revised in a way that balances Americans' rights with law enforcement agencies' needs, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Friday.

As the Justice Department heads to court this week to defend its right to tap cell phone locations, Leahy noted many of the laws to be argued before that forum fail to reflect the dawning "Information Age" — a time when new technologies, like BlackBerrys, create both new opportunities to communicate and new privacy challenges.

He thus promised as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on those rules before the year's end, and he urged his fellow lawmakers to work with him on later revisions to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act — the guiding document on the matter.

"The use of cell phone locational information impacts Americans across the nation and from every walk of life," Leahy said in a statement. "The question of how best to protect these digital communications, while providing law enforcement with the tools that it needs to keep us safe, has no simple answer."

[Echo In Light]

1. K&R

[ck4829]

2. Kick

[Go2Peace]

3. Glad to see this. We are way behind Europe in providing reasonable safeguards to privacy