TECHNOLOGY NEWS | Mon Feb 6, 2017 | 7:15pm EST

U.S. House passes bill requiring warrants to search old emails

By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to require law enforcement authorities to obtain a search warrant before seeking old emails from technology companies, a win for privacy advocates fearful the Trump administration may work to expand government surveillance powers.

The House passed the measure by a voice vote. But the legislation was expected to encounter resistance in the Senate, where it failed to advance last year amid opposition by a handful of Republican lawmakers after the House passed it unanimously.

Technology companies such as Microsoft (MSFT.O) have lobbied Congress for years to pass the Email Privacy Act, which updates a decades-old law to force authorities to first get a warrant to access emails or other digital communications that are at least 180 days old.

Currently, agencies such as the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission only need a subpoena, which is subject to less judicial oversight than a warrant, to seek such data from a service provider - a standard that has existed since the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was adopted in 1986.

Supporters of the bill passed Monday say it is needed to update an out of date law conceived and written before the rise of the commercial internet.

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