Your Emails Are Safest in Texas—Sort of

While it remains rather easy for federal investigators to access older emails throughout the country, including Texas, Governor Rick Perry signed into law a tougher privacy bill last week that will make it more difficult for state law enforcement. Under the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986, emails that have already been opened or have been held on a server for six months or longer can be accessed by federal investigators with no more than a subpoena. Now, at least local law enforcement officials will need a warrant to receive access to those emails, no matter how old they are. While it does not change the standard for federal investigators, it is the “toughest” protection of any state in the U.S.

Sources: http://rt.com/usa/privacy-state-texas-law-894/ http://www.webpronews.com/texas-kind-of-protects-your-email-privacy-with-new-law-2013-06

For more information, please visit our Online Privacy service page.

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the IP law firm and its IP law attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

Klemchuk LLP hosts Culture Counts, a blog devoted to the discussion of law firm culture and corporate core values with frequent topics about positive work environment, conscious capitalism, entrepreneurial management, positive workplace culture, workplace productivity, and corporate core values.