The approach embraces a sound principle: Private electronic correspondence stored with an Internet company in the "cloud" should receive the same protection afforded letters, photos and other private material stored in a drawer or filing cabinet, or on a computer at home.
The VA is testing My HealtheVet Pilot, a prototype developed to demonstrate that the agency can provide veterans with a safe, secure, and private electronic copy of their own VA health information through a web environment.
In particular, VICE has uncovered that ITAPS and SPSC have sent letters to politicians lobbying against the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, a wide-sweeping bill that would limit the NSA's ability to read private electronic communications without a warrant.
The bill, an amendment to the outdated 1986 law that now governs e-mail access, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, would require law enforcement agents to get a search warrant from a judge in order to obtain e-mail content from a communications service provider that holds private electronic messages, photos and other personal records, like Gmail or Facebook.
Lewis Holloway, the superintendent of schools in Statesboro, Ga., imposed a new policy this fall prohibiting private electronic communications after learning that Facebook and text messages had helped fuel a relationship between an eighth grade English teacher and her 14-year-old male pupil.
The reason: most business transactions were already done at a distance, whether by fax, telephone, post, or private electronic links.
The Republicans, however, do trumpet an all too often forgotten area of privacy -- how governments treat private, electronic information.
(47) Liberalisation of electronic communications networks and services markets and rapid technological development have combined to boost competition and economic growth and have resulted in a rich diversity of end-user services accessible via public and private electronic communications networks and publicly accessible private networks.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), designed to prevent unauthorized government access to private electronic communications, is sorely in need of an update.
