Privacy? A thing of the future?

Fox News released an article titled “Senate panel approves bill requiring police to get a warrant to read emails”. In the article it says “The revised Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee will now move on to the full Senate for a vote. Passage would be a victory for privacy advocates, who say current privacy rules have been left in the dust by technological progress.” If this law were to be passed, it would mean that law enforcement agents would first have to obtain a search warrant before they were allowed to view personal emails, it would also put restrictions on the private files allowed to be obtained from websites. Stated in the article “Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, police only need a subpoena, issued without a judge's approval, to read emails that have been opened or that are more than 180 days old.” The article states, “The Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies have resisted the changes over concerns that investigations could take longer due to the new requirement in response to these issues.”

            Over the years our rights have slowly been taken away, this being a good example. The government can tap into your phone calls whenever they feel necessary, not having any reason at all. Although not explicitly stated in the constitution, some people feel that privacy rights are implied through out the constitution. “A key Senate panel approved legislation Thursday that would require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge before they can read a private citizen's emails, Facebook messages or other electronic communications.”