The Hill: White House Silent on Privacy Debate

CDT President & CEO, Nuala O’Connor, recently had an op-ed published in The Hill on the anniversary of a coalition-led White House petition for ECPA reform that reached more than 100,000 signatures of support. 

Here’s an interesting question. What do Jimmy Kimmel, the Death Star, major league baseball and home brewing all have in common? The White House has responded to public petitions dealing with each of these subject matters.

What’s not on this list? ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act) reform which would update the country’s woefully outdated digital privacy law, originally written in 1986. One year after the White House petition to reform ECPA received support from over 112,500 concerned Americans, well above the 100,000 signature threshold required for a response, the White House has yet to issue a reply. One year later digital privacy reform is more important than ever and the White House needs to uphold its commitment to responding to public petitions and deliver a formal response on clean ECPA reform, with no carve-out for civil agencies.

Read more here.