The Electronic Communications Privacy Act: How It Affects You

The electronic communications privacy act was passed by the U.S. government in 1986 in order to place some order on electronic messages. The original bill was designed to prevent the government from accessing emails without the proper authorization, and the electronic communications privacy act was an amendment to this bill. It allows for businesses, corporations, and individuals to be confident that their email messages are secure. It was considered a great step forward for electronic privacy, and even today it protects you. Here are some of the ways that it has made a difference.

When you store email, you aren’t really storing it in a safe place. It may be in a password-protected inbox that only you can access, but the data is still out there. Depending on the type of email service you use, it is either on the internet somewhere, or stored within your very own computer. If someone with the right resources wants to read your mail, it is most likely that they will be able to after enough trying. This is a scary thought, especially if you send or receive any important emails. You never want your emails’ security to be breached, even if it is by the government.

If the government requests to see your email, you will usually have no reason whatsoever to refuse them access. But when someone accesses your email without even asking you first, it can be an extremely heinous breach of security. This is what could have happened with the government prior to the privacy act. If it was deemed necessary for a case or for an investigation, they could have used whatever means necessary to find the emails in your inbox and read them. This resulted in quite a scare among many people, as I’m sure you can agree with.

Fortunately, this madness was ended with the privacy act. No matter what, you will have to give permission for the government to access your electronic mail in any way. In a world of lowered senses of privacy, you can now be sure that your electronic data is as safe as it is going to get. It is hard to put security restrictions on electronic information, but the privacy act will certainly try.