Finally, there's something Google and Microsoft can agree on: Our electronic privacy protections are in serious need of an overhaul. They, along with Intel, AOL, AT&T, the ACLU, and a dozen other household names, have formed the Digital Due Process coalition, aimed at urging Congress to modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) -- the only thing keeping Johnny Law from pawing through your digital life.
The ECPA was passed into law in 1986. To put that in context, the first Notes From the Field columns appeared in print issues of InfoWorld that year, back when I was just a cub reporter. Ronald Reagan was still president, even if he may not have been aware of it at the time. The Web was still three years from being invented. The term "spam" still referred to canned luncheon meat, and a 300-baud modem represented a state-of-the-art Internet connection.