This White House petition on Internet privacy now requires a response

Over 100,000 people have signed onto a WethePeople petition asking President Barack Obama to support changes in a 27-year-old privacy law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

The law, which was written in 1986, and long before Gmail and Facebook, allows the seizing of e-mail and other digital communications without a warrant. Critics say it doesn't provide enough privacy protections for online communications. "Americans are deeply concerned about NSA surveillance," the petition reads. "But the NSA’s not the only problem. An outdated law says the IRS and hundreds of other agencies can read our communications without a warrant." Crossing the 100,000-signature threshold means that the White House must now issue a response to the petitioners, though there's no telling when that might come. The petition narrowly made the deadline with several hundred extra signatures to spare (and more are still coming in).