Americans for Tax Reform, along with 8 organizations signed onto a letter in support of The Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad (LEADS) Act. The LEADS Act aims to protect the privacy of American citizens by requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access emails and personal data stored abroad. The LEADS act would reinforce the principles of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and apply them to information outside of our borders. The private communications of American citizens are protected by the Constitution, no matter where one may choose to store them.
The letter states:
“The U.S. Government has relied on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to reach data of foreign citizens stored abroad so long as the company storing the data had a presence on U.S. soil. This practice creates distrust of American businesses and encourages foreign citizens, companies and countries to stop doing business with U.S. companies operating overseas. Eventually, this will harm U.S. companies and threaten America’s leadership in cloud computing technology.”
In February, This bipartisan legislation to protect privacy was introduced in both the Senate and the House. Introduced by Senator Hatch (R-Utah) S. 512 and Representative Marino (R-Penn.) H.R. 1174, the LEADS Act protects the Fourth Amendment Rights of US citizens.
Senator Hatch explains: “This is a pro-business, pro-innovation bill that will protect American privacy in the digital age and promote trust in U.S. technologies worldwide.”
You can read the full letter here.
You can read more on the LEADs Act here.