Tech firms, privacy groups want new e-privacy law

A coalition of tech vendors and privacy groups is calling on Congress to update a 24-year-old law to better protect users of e-mail, cloud computing services and mobile phones from government surveillance.

The newly formed Digital Due Process Coalition wants Congress to revamp the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to ensure that e-mail messages, documents stored on cloud computing services and location-based mobile-phone information enjoy the same privacy protections as information stored in a file cabinet or on a PC hard drive.