14 DAY TRIAL // Apple and Dropbox are joining the Digital Due Process Group which seeks to improve digital surveillance laws per the EFF’s campaign, “Who Has Your Back.”
Launched in April by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), "Who Has Your Back" is a campaign that calls on major “Internet companies” to deny the government access to user data.
“Today, we’re pleased to see that two of the thirteen companies highlighted in our petition, Apple and Dropbox, have agreed to one of our requests: that they stand up for user privacy in Congress by joining the Digital Due Process coalition,” the EFF writes.
The organization explains that the DDP is a diverse coalition of privacy advocates much like the EFF, and others who have a shared goal of modernizing surveillance laws in the age where Internet is as ubiquitous as water on our planet.
The EFF further notes that the DDP coalition is especially focused on updating the woefully-outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act or "ECPA", and that it is actively pressing Congress to do so.
The group explains that “ECPA is the primary law governing how and when law enforcement can access personal information and private communications stored by communications providers like Google, Facebook, your cell phone company or your ISP.”
However, ECPA was passed by Congress in 1986, long before cell phones were available to the masses. The Internet hand’t even been invented then, the EFF stresses.
To prove just how “weak, confusing, and outdated” ECPA is, the EFF reveals that it doesn’t specifically address location information at all.
As avid Softpedia readers will remember, both Apple and Google have been the target of much debate over how the companies store and use location data from their users.
EFF and those who join it in their crusade simply want to establish new rules capable of drawing a distinct line between the scenarios when the government can be granted a search warrant to track your cell phone, and when it cannot.
“As we enter that next phase in the fight for electronic privacy reform, it’s good to know that we’ll have Apple and Dropbox on our side,” the EFF continues.
“We’re especially pleased to have these new allies as we approach the 25th anniversary of ECPA’s passage on October 21st, which will be a focal point in our campaign to get a 21st century upgrade to our electronic privacy laws.”
The EFF has updated the "Who Has Your Back" chart to include the two companies awarding them a gold star each simply for joining the effort.