Social media has become a staple for our generation.
We are tied to our computers or smartphones, sharing thoughts, pictures and videos on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
But how aware are we of the government’s interest in the data we share?
Internet giants Google and Twitter have released reports in the past month detailing the amount and frequency in which governments have demanded user information. These “transparency reports” have become a vital tool for learning about how the government is accessing people’s data.
Google has released its reports biannually since 2010, and Twitter has been doing the same for the past year. Other Internet companies, such as DropBox, are also hopping on the bandwagon to promote user awareness and look better in the eyes of individuals who value transparency.
Unfortunately, these reports have uncovered a frightening truth: the United States’ government not only requests more user data than any other country in the world, but is also requesting more and more data each year.
Google reportedly saw a 70 percent increase in the number of data requests last year compared to when they started releasing these reports in 2010. They also saw a 33 percent increase in the U.S. government’s demands since 2011. Twitter reported a similar increase in government data
requests.
Yet, the amount and frequency of government requests isn’t the only important thing — it is also imperative to find out how the government is going about requesting this information.
Only 22 percent of the government’s requests to Google and only 19 percent of those made to Twitter were backed up with a search warrant. The majority of the government’s requests came from subpoenas, legal orders that have a lower threshold than warrants and don’t require a judge’s signature.
This is thanks to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a law written in 1986 that still holds sway over digital communications. Under the ECPA, emails stored for more than 180 days are considered “abandoned” and can be obtained by the government without a warrant.
The ECPA was to be reformed last year after Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote an amendment that required all attempts to access emails to be backed up by warrants. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last year before coming to a vote during Christmas.
Alas, our great senators decided to drop the amendment addressing ECPA reform, leaving our digital communications vulnerable.
To their credit, many Internet companies such as Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft have made it official policy to require full warrants before disclosing the contents of emails, but without true reform to privacy laws, they do not have legal ground to stand on.
Even despite the lack of reform, there is still information that is missing from the transparency reports.
Requests made through National Security Letters, under the Patriot Act or under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are not included, and these requests typically ask for far more information than those done under the ECPA. These types of information requests often contain gag orders, preventing the companies from notifying their users that their data is being requested.
And this is precisely why it is so vital that we begin working to reform these laws.
As technology becomes more and more prominent in our lives, digital media will continue to replace the more traditional modes of communication. It is in our best interest to demand that digital communication receives the same kind of protections that existed for physical media.
There is no reason that email should be treated any differently than a letter that was stamped and enveloped.
And there’s no reason to allow the government to continue treating our digital communications as fair play.
