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Texas goes its own way on privacy

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There’s exciting news on the privacy front coming out of Texas. Both houses of the Texas legislature have passed HB 2268, which is now on its way to Governor Perry to sign. The bill gives Texans a bit more privacy in their email communications – privacy a lot of people are under the impression they already have.

Currently, the government’s access to your email falls in part under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). There’s been a lot of talk recently about reforming ECPA, which hasn’t been updated since 1986. While reform on the federal level has stalled, it seems that Texas has decided to take the bull by the horns* and go ahead and enact privacy protections for Texans that go beyond what is provided in ECPA.

If this bill becomes law, it will only apply within Texas, however. Federal investigators will still have no increased restrictions on accessing Texans’ email communications. However, it is a step in the right direction on ECPA reform. The Texas legislature’s passing of this bill shows that there is support for ECPA reform – and California has a similar bill in the works. Hopefully, this will put more pressure on Congress to get moving on ECPA reform, and perhaps show them that it really can be done.

For more info, you can check out this great Ars Technica article on Texas HB 2268. For some background on ECPA, I also suggest you take a look at this CDT page on Security and Surveillance.

*I’m hilarious.


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