Facebook, e-mail providers say they require warrants for private data seizures

Facebook and the three largest email providers told The Hill this week that they require police to obtain a search warrant before accessing their users' private online communications.

The policies of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook go beyond the privacy standards of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a 1986 law that only requires police to obtain a subpoena, issued without a judge's approval, to read emails, instant messages and other forms of digital communication that have been opened or that are more than 180 days old. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is pushing legislation that would update ECPA to require police to obtain a warrant before seizing electronic messages, regardless of how old they are. He argues the law is badly out of date and fails to protect Internet users' privacy. But the four Web companies said they all already refuse to turn over their customers' communications unless the police have a warrant. The companies argue that the Fourth Amendment provides more legal protection to their users than ECPA does.