As CIA Chief Scandal Looms, Lawmakers Consider Tightening E-Mail Privacy
By David Kravets
11.15.12

Recent intrusions by the FBI into e-mail correspondence between former CIA Director David Petraeus and his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell, have raised a lot of questions and concerns about the government’s ability to access private e-mails.

The current law covering access to e-mail gives the government the right to snoop without a court order on email that’s older than 180 days, but requires a court order for missives that are newer than this, a fact that privacy activists have been trying to change for years.

Now they might finally be getting closer to that wish.

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Thursday that it will be voting Nov. 29 on whether to advance legislation that would require authorities to obtain a probable-cause warrant to get access to all e-mail and other content stored in the cloud, just as a warrant is required to search a car or house.

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