Patrick Leahy: Right now gov't can access your old email without a warrant or your knowledge.

[Cal33]

Right now, the government could access your old email without your knowledge and without a warrant. Today we have an opportunity to change that.
I'm proud to have drafted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) back in 1986 to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment privacy rights at the dawn of the Information Age. But the growth of cloud computing, long-term email storage on third-party servers, and new location-aware mobile devices demands an update to this important privacy law.

So I just introduced the Electronic Communications Privacy Amendments Act, which would improve privacy protections and establish stronger legal standards by which the government can access your digital information. Urge your members of Congress to support my Electronic Communications Privacy Amendments Act of 2011 today.

Current law allows government investigators and law enforcement to access your email and other personal data if it has been stored on a server for more than 180 days, without any judicial review. My legislation would eliminate the "180-day rule" and require investigators to obtain a warrant to access any personal information stored on a third-party server. It would also require them to let you know about it, unless notification would endanger national security.

Please join TechFreedom — and privacy watchdogs across the political spectrum — in supporting this important legislation.


HTTP://TechFreedom.com

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Better yet, why don't you all recommend a good archive mail backup

that will allow us to put the data on a thumb drive and will allow us to retrieve the data easily. I tried it with the Windows Mailmerge but can't access the information.

[BadgerKid]

2. One sort-of possibility, if you have a computer/laptop

and are somewhat comfortable installing programs, is to install an email program and download the messages (thus archiving it). Then delete your emails online.

Just to give an idea what this looks like, look up Mozilla Thunderbird.

[kestrel91316]

4. I use Outlook. I suppose I could do it same way, just go to AOL and delete the old stuff.

[Cal33]

5. It sounds so simple, but how does one do that?

[kestrel91316]

6. I assume just open Outlook, make sure to move all the emails you

want to keep into folders, then go to the AOL website, log into email page, and start deleting old crap

I probably won't bother. They won't find anything in my emails that would implicate me in any Mooslim Terra plots, lol.

[Cal33]

7. Many thanks for the info.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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