White Paper Analyzes, Proposes Changes to Laws Allowing Law Enforcement To Access Electronic Communications

Current statutes on when law enforcement officials can access consumers’ electronic communications are more than 30 years old and failed to keep pace with developments in commerce and technology, said a white paper released Tuesday from Bancroft law firm partners Viet Dinh and Jeffrey Harris. The paper identifies what they see as several deficiencies in the current statutory framework and analyzes several recent legislative proposals like the Email Privacy Act and the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad (Leads) Act, and offers suggestions on how to improve the legislation.