Parker Bunch
The Daily Caller
3/22/2013
In a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee Tuesday, a panel of technology law experts called on Congress to pass legislation mandating the long-term retention of every American’s text messages and emails in case of a future criminal investigation.
“Billions of texts are sent every day, and some surely contain key evidence about criminal activity,” said Richard Littlehale of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and a member of the panel in his written statement. “Text messaging often plays a big role in investigations related to domestic violence, stalking, menacing, drug trafficking, and weapons trafficking.”
The hearing was held to discuss potential new provisions of the outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986. The panel’s suggestions included longer retention times of interpersonal electronic messages as well as the creation of and expedited federal access to these databases.
Not everyone was pleased with the panel’s recommendations…
…Google has been forthcoming with its willingness to cooperate with federal search warrants and other legally viable electronic information requests. Its law enforcement and information security senior counselor Richard Salgado recently authored a report concerning National Security Letters (NSLs) — user information requests sent to Google by the FBI in the name of U.S. security. Salgado said that Google would continue to work with the federal government in shedding light on the information requests…
The article continues at The Daily Caller.
