The
battle between Apple and the FBI has shifted to the halls of Congress,
where the House and Senate are taking dramatically divergent approaches
as they weigh Americans’ privacy rights against what the government says
is a pressing need to get a peek at its citizens’ secrets.
House
lawmakers, moving with stunning bipartisanship, pushed ahead Wednesday
with legislation establishing a national requirement that any law
enforcement agent must get a court order before attempting to pry
through someone’s private electronic data, including emails held by
their phone or Internet providers.
And once companies are
served with a warrant, they can then tell their customers, unless a
court has specifically issued a gag order.
SEE ALSO: Email Privacy Act clears House Judiciary Committee
“The
Fourth Amendment’s papers and effects are today’s emails, tweets and
posts,” said Rep. Tom Marino, Pennsylvania Republican, just before the
House Judiciary Committee approved the Email Privacy Act on a 28-0 vote.
Lawmakers
said the bill would correct an odd loophole in current law that
requires a warrant when authorities want to see a recent email, but only
requires a subpoena if the message is more than 180 days old.
Across
the Capitol, however, two key senators were headed the other direction,
announcing a draft bill that would insist companies help — including
breaking their own encryption — when authorities do obtain a court order
demanding data.
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“No
entity or individual is above the law,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
California Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee. “Today, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using
encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court
order. We need strong encryption to protect personal data, but we also
need to know when terrorists are plotting to kill Americans.”
She
wrote the draft, titled the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016,
with committee Chairman Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican.
They
were reacting to the fight earlier this year when FBI agents went to
court to demand tech giant Apple help crack the iPhone that belonged to
one of the suspects in December’s California terrorist attack.
Apple
balked and the issue was being fought in court until the FBI said it
found another way to crack the phone, and withdrew its request.
But
other similar cases are still pending, and Mr. Burr said he hoped his
draft bill would spark a conversation on where to strike the right
balance between the two sides.
“Based on initial feedback, I am confident that the discussion as begun,” he said Wednesday.
Advocates
for Internet freedom have blasted their proposal as a step backward,
saying that it would pressure tech companies to use lower security
standards that could be broken not only by police, but also by hackers
intent on stealing information or doing harm.
In a summary of
their bill, Mr. Burr and Mrs. Feinstein said their intent is to make
sure companies cooperate rather than conflict with police: “The bill
does not create any new collection authorities for the government to
obtain communications. The bill simply requires covered entities to
ensure that the government’s lawfully-obtained evidence is readable — so
that law enforcement can solve crimes and protect our communities from
criminal and terrorist activities.”
The split between the House and Senate is not new.
Story Continues →
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