4 ms·

Any analysis or summary on this for those who don't want to read raw bill text?

innocentoldguy 10y ago
According to the bill, the purpose is to, "To amend title 18, United States Code, to update the privacy protections for electronic communications information that is stored by third-party service providers in order to protect consumer privacy interests while meeting law enforcement needs, and for other purposes." Most of the changes appear to be related to how government and law enforcement access email data.
- codazoda 10y ago
  "and for other purposes", loved that part.
  - jadell 10y ago
    Spend even a small amount of time on congress.gov/bill, and you notice every bill has this tacked on. It's to leave wiggle room for the inevitable backroom dealing and amendments that it takes to get legislation passed nowadays. Don't like it? Call your Congress people and voice your support for: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-resolution/25/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-res... and https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/395/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/395/... Note the irony here in the bill text
    - ori_b 10y ago
      I wonder if that's irony or humor.
    - tomohawk 10y ago
      All they (congress) would have to do is vote to 'deem' that only one subject was in the law. Just like they voted to 'deem' that Obamacare originated in the House, when it actually originated in the Senate. They did this to get around the Constitutional requirement that all spending bills originate in the House.
      - gizmo686 10y ago
        Would it be up to Congress? I am not a lawyer, but my reading of the bill is that it would give courts the authority to void any act that they deem non-compliant.
yusyusyus 10y ago
It would require a warrant for grabbing email versus today's law which only requires a simple subpoena after 180 days.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  A warrant for who? The NSA apparently can just run roughshod over any laws.
  - rosser 10y ago
    Regular law enforcement, in cases that don't warrant (not intended) "parallel construction", presumably.
dragonwriter 10y ago
Mostly, it seems to be tightening the requirements for protection for stored data (including expand the scope of the warrant requirement), but some is loosening by expanding the scope of authorized disclosures (in a way that may or may not be reasonable; I can see an obvious reason for it in the case of cloud services where the host isn't the service provider, but it may also create a big loophole.) There's also some seemingly gratuitous wording and word order edits that I'm not sure if they are technical corrections or have some non-obvious purpose.
csours 10y ago
I wish Genius hadn't gone evil, because this would be an excellent application of that.
- jat850 10y ago
  Your comment caught my attention - I am not aware of what this might mean. Genius went evil? Will you explain? Thank you! I haven't used the site in a long time and the last time was only to look up some song lyrics.
  - csours 10y ago
    Scummy SEO: https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/25/google-rap-genius/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/25/google-rap-genius/ I thought I saw a story about a founder doing something else sketchy as well, but I can't find it.
    - toomanybeersies 10y ago
      That was 3 or 4 years ago, and they apologised for it and they acknowledged that it was pretty scummy. I think that we can move on from one incident several years ago, it's not like they've made a habit of dodgy business decisions since then.

According to the bill, the purpose is to, "To amend title 18, United States Code, to update the privacy protections for electronic communications information that is stored by third-party service providers in order to protect consumer privacy interests while meeting law enforcement needs, and for other purposes." Most of the changes appear to be related to how government and law enforcement access email data.

codazoda 10y ago
"and for other purposes", loved that part.
- jadell 10y ago
  Spend even a small amount of time on congress.gov/bill, and you notice every bill has this tacked on. It's to leave wiggle room for the inevitable backroom dealing and amendments that it takes to get legislation passed nowadays. Don't like it? Call your Congress people and voice your support for: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-resolution/25/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-res... and https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/395/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/395/... Note the irony here in the bill text
  - ori_b 10y ago
    I wonder if that's irony or humor.
  - tomohawk 10y ago
    All they (congress) would have to do is vote to 'deem' that only one subject was in the law. Just like they voted to 'deem' that Obamacare originated in the House, when it actually originated in the Senate. They did this to get around the Constitutional requirement that all spending bills originate in the House.
    - gizmo686 10y ago
      Would it be up to Congress? I am not a lawyer, but my reading of the bill is that it would give courts the authority to void any act that they deem non-compliant.

yusyusyus 10y ago

It would require a warrant for grabbing email versus today's law which only requires a simple subpoena after 180 days.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago
A warrant for who? The NSA apparently can just run roughshod over any laws.
- rosser 10y ago
  Regular law enforcement, in cases that don't warrant (not intended) "parallel construction", presumably.

dragonwriter 10y ago

Mostly, it seems to be tightening the requirements for protection for stored data (including expand the scope of the warrant requirement), but some is loosening by expanding the scope of authorized disclosures (in a way that may or may not be reasonable; I can see an obvious reason for it in the case of cloud services where the host isn't the service provider, but it may also create a big loophole.) There's also some seemingly gratuitous wording and word order edits that I'm not sure if they are technical corrections or have some non-obvious purpose.

csours 10y ago

I wish Genius hadn't gone evil, because this would be an excellent application of that.

jat850 10y ago
Your comment caught my attention - I am not aware of what this might mean. Genius went evil? Will you explain? Thank you! I haven't used the site in a long time and the last time was only to look up some song lyrics.
- csours 10y ago
  Scummy SEO: https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/25/google-rap-genius/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/25/google-rap-genius/ I thought I saw a story about a founder doing something else sketchy as well, but I can't find it.
  - toomanybeersies 10y ago
    That was 3 or 4 years ago, and they apologised for it and they acknowledged that it was pretty scummy. I think that we can move on from one incident several years ago, it's not like they've made a habit of dodgy business decisions since then.