On the eve of a House hearing on communications privacy, the Digital 4th Coalition has released a poll suggesting a vast majority of voters support updating the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to make it tougher for the government to get access to e-mails.
According to the coalition, whose members include the ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology, 77% of respondents said the government should have to get a warrant before accessing e-mails, videos or other online documents.
The agreement on such protections was bipartisan, with 78% of Democrats and 76% of Republicans saying a warrant was needed.
The poll also found that 53% of respondents would be more included to vote for a presidential candidate that supported strengthening online privacy laws.
When ECPA was passed most Americans didn't have e-mail and weren't storing information in the cloud. The law allows the government to access media stored more than 180 days, including social media and private e-mails.
The survey was conducted by phone Nov. 11-12 among 1,011 active voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1%.
Congress has been talking a lot about updating ECPA for the digital age, and in response to leaks from Edward Snowden about bulk collection, but has yet to put a bill on the President's desk.
