Time to Amend the ECPA

In 1986, congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to prohibit the unauthorized interception of electronic communications during their transmission and to provide limited protection to electronic communications that are in various forms of electronic storage. The name of the act might lead one to believe that it affords protection for e-mail communications similar to that given to first-class mail under federal law. Looks, however, can be deceiving. In fact, what appears to be a statute that protects the privacy of e-mails is, for the most part, an outdated morass of so-called protections that cancel each other out-leaving nothing protected.