Hatch Urges Passage of LEADS Act, Open to Alternatives

Hatch told attendees. “I could use your help.” Alternative approaches could include a focus on nationality of users, he said. “Without an appropriate legal framework, the current state of affairs regarding extraterritorial use of warrants puts the privacy of American citizens at risk,” Hatch said. “That is why I introduced the LEADS Act: to promote international comity and law enforcement cooperation. To date, the bill has received broad bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and from trade associations and the business community.” The bill is backed by six other Republicans and six Democrats. Hatch urged an update of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the topic of a Judiciary Committee hearing earlier Wednesday. Hatch urged an overhaul of that act, saying “virtually everyone agrees” that privacy protections should be the same both online and offline. “Lest you think there are no reciprocal or far-reaching consequences, imagine a scenario where China wants to access emails stored in the United States,” he said. “Instead of going through established diplomatic channels or international treaties to obtain those emails, Chinese officials could go to a China-based company, like Alibaba, and demand that it retrieve emails from its U.S. servers and turn them over. This disturbing hypothetical could well become a reality because of our government’s position on the extraterritorial reach of U.S. warrants. In fact, the lawyer who is litigating the Microsoft case on behalf of the government acknowledged last week that the ability for a foreign government to require disclosures of a U.S. provider ‘should be of some concern.’” Hatch made many references to the recent oral argument that Microsoft participated in before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York (see 1509080052). He said Wednesday's Senate hearing was "helpful" in the broader ECPA overhaul efforts: "We're making some headway."