If the ECPA Was a Person, It Could Rent a Car…

This week marked the 25 anniversary of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the 1986 law that forms the basis of digital privacy in America.  Written broadly to anticipate new forms of technology, it is nevertheless showing its age.  If measured according to Moore’s Law, microprocessors today are 8,192 times more powerful than they were in 1986.  And wireless communications?  Three words: Zach Morris Phone.  Anyhow, the point of this post is to raise awareness of the recent efforts in Congress to update the law to reflect more modern technologies and privacy concerns.  We live in a world where just about  everything is stored and accessed through computers.  The number of people with access to information continues to grow.  Your data passes through a lot of electronic hands to get to your device: device operating systems, internet service providers, email clients, cloud storage companies, backup servers, the list goes on.  Read more about the efforts to update the law over at c|net.