Electronic Communications Privacy Act ( Ecpa )

If you violate a local law--we will hope that you will, and work to make sure that you are put in jail and be kept in custody as long as possible." According to Anne Kandra, whether a person is in favor or against the USA Patriot Act, it is important to know how this Act will affect our life online. The act allows investigators to use more powerful tools to monitor phone calls, e-mail messages, and web surfing. People now have less guarantee of privacy on the Internet. The federal investigators will now look through everyone's e-mail, text chat, or search inquiry. The surveillance will focus on people who authorities have a solid basis of suspicion. They will have to establish probable that a targeted person has been involved in a crime. The judges will then approve all reasonable requests related to criminal investigations. This Act also allows federal investigators to wiretap suspect's phones. Before, federal investigators had to have probable cause and had to specify specific lines to monitor. Now, they are able to wiretap without probable cause. They can monitor everything on a line whether the suspect is using it or not.

the titles of books an individual has purchased or borrowed or the identity of individuals who have purchased or borrowed certain books. The Patriot Act authorizes the use of devices to trace the telephone calls or e-mails of people who are not suspected of any crime. American citizens and permanent legal residents’ investigated and sought information on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment.

A. According to the Communications Decency Act(CDA), cyberspace has many of the problems conterversise among crime, advertising,gaming,copyright,gambling

As the late Frank Herbert once said, “Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Federal electronic wiretapping and supervision dates to the Wiretap Act of 1968, and has only increased in the following decades. Organizations such as the National Security Agency have been empowered by FISA (United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts) to bypass the authority of the Supreme Court in determining constitutional validity on searches. Government Surveillance is unjustified because it infringes upon personal freedoms, does not guarantee safety, and is not a vital necessity.

With the establishment of the US Patriot Act, the government has been granted the ability to tap into phone lines without the knowledge of or notification to the owner of the line. I have personally been effected by this on a local level due to a high political case my ex-husband was involved in with his former employer. The local government tapped into all of our phone lines and recorded a lot of information from conversations and text messages that I personally had with my ex-husband and conversations he had with his former employer. We did not know that our phones were tapped until they presented the transcripts in court. Granted, none of the information provided was incriminating in any nature, but the fact that our constitutional right was invaded was just beyond mind blowing.

The United States government’s interpretation of the Fourth Amendment has caused them to believe they are justified in amassing a collection of American phone records, which creates a breach in many American citizens’ privacy. According to the FISA Amendment Act, the government has the authority to “target foreigners abroad” (ACLU) and the phone records of any communications between Americans and those foreign targets can be collected. However, this act does not allow amassing

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) is an act defining the ways in which information about people may be legally used and handled. The main intent is to protect individuals against misuse or abuse of information about them.

By wiretapping specific people, the government is making it harder for terrorists to communicate and share their plans over long distances without revealing their plan. In addition to wiretapping, the power to access old records of people also gives more control to the national government of peoples' future intentions: "The USA Patriot Act allows for government access to Database Search Records, Circulation Records, Computer Use Records, E-mail Records, Inter-Library, Loan Records, and Reference Interviews" (Johnson 1). These key provisions are what the United States needs to ensure the well-being of its people.

THE DATA PROTECTION ACT (1998): The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a law intended to secure individual information put away on PCs or in a sorted out paper recording framework. Amid the second half of the twentieth century, organizations, associations and the administration started utilizing PCs to store data about their clients, customers and staff in

mention privacy; however it was enacted into British law with the EU data protection directive which

Law enforcement has the authority to listening in on any electronic communications with little overlooking. This means that they can get access to wiretaps, sneak and peek warrants among other provisions. The full name of the law is the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”. So this act fights terrorism it also gives the federal government tools to deal with suspected terrorist activity. Since 9/11, all political leaders have sought new ways to address terrorism.

Essentially, the Patriot Act gave the government and the National Security Administration (NSA) more power to tap American citizens phones, and to monitor cellular and internet data without probable cause in the name of preventing terrorism.

The Patriot Act allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect data, it can apply to the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence court to force businesses, such as cellular telephone companies, to provide user records, these records can be searched without the owners knowledge or consent. It can also obtain internet data from it the National Security Electronic Surveillance Program (PRISM), operated by the NSA, including emails, chats, photos, video, payment information including credit card numbers, and other digital information.

Two types of laws are adopted by various countries to protect the sensitive information of individuals on the web. The first kind, comprehensive laws, are laws “that govern the collection, use and dissemination of personal information by both the public and private sectors”6. These general laws do not deal with individual areas like health care or educational systems. Instead, they establish standards for use of private information for all entities. Comprehensive laws are usually adopted for one of three reasons: to remedy past injustices, to promote electronic commerce or to ensure that laws are consistent with Pan-European laws7. In addition, comprehensive laws often require the establishment of an independent commissioner to oversee the enforcement of the law. Unfortunately, problems arise because either a lack of resources hinders

Koby, M. H. (n.d.). Children's Online Privacy Protecion Act (1998). Retrieved January 17, 2012, from Major Acts of Congress: