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This evening, President Obama made a statement about today’s explosions at the Boston Marathon.

The President explained that he had been briefed by his Homeland Security team, who are continuing to monitor the situation as it unfolds, and had "directed the full resources of the federal government to help state and local authorities protect our people, increase security around the United States as necessary, and investigate what happened."

“The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight,” he said. “And Michelle and I send our deepest thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims in the wake of this senseless loss.” 

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Electric Imp, the startup trying to build hardware that makes it easy to turn any idea into a connected device, has signed a deal to provide its hardware and cloud services to companies participating in a GE-led hardware challenge. The industrial conglomerate said last week that it would team up with industrial product design site, Quirky, to enable people to build new connected devices.

For Electric Imp the partnership is a validation of its approach to the internet of things and a chance to help bring a proven model of innovation to the hardware hackers trying to build products for the internet of things. It’s also a showcase for the new hardware development model pioneered by Quirky and taken even further by crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indigogo.

Last Thursday, GE said it would open up its hardware patents for a Quirky-sponsored design competition. The goal of the competition it to bring a few connected devices from idea to physical product in time for the 2013 holiday season. From the blog post announcing the partnership:

GE will open thousands of its most promising patents and new technologies to the Quirky community for the development of new consumer products; and a co-branded product development initiative to build a full line of app-enabled connected devices for the home in areas such as health, security, water or air that will be developed using advanced manufacturing tools and technologies. This new line of products will be co-branded Wink: Instantly Connected.

GE will open up patents in the areas of optical systems, including holographic and fast-focusing lens technologies, GE’s Ultra-High Barrier thin-film technology to protect electronics form the elements and GE’s telematics and asset tracking technology. Add in Electric Imp’s connectivity modules and the cloud backend and inventors can create connected products that could become powerful monitoring applications that could be used for environmental scanning, security and a variety of other purposes.

The collaboration between GE and Quirky has an April 17 deadline, which is pretty quick, but there will be later iterations of the competition as well. The idea reminds me somewhat of the Innocentive model, where corporations post research challenges online in the Innocentive community and entrepreneurs or researchers post answers.

The challenge in the research business was in finding ways to crowdsource solutions to complicated problems in a way that enticed people to participate. In the burgeoning hardware development movement there are several challenges, including a possible patent thicket innovators have to clear. There are also the complexities of getting connectivity into devices and then building out services that can use that networked hardware. Designing a physical product for manufacturing is another area where startups can fail.

Thus, this partnership tries to eliminate as many stumbling blocks as possible, which is why it’s worth watching.

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Financial professionals have historically relied on relied on devices like BlackBerries and boxy Bloomberg terminals to stay informed. In the last three years, however, more of them are turning to iPhones and iPads to stay in touch and keep up with crucial market information.

This shift in behavior helps explain Bloomberg’s decision to update its iPad app this week to include deeper research layers and the company’s messaging system which is popular at elite financial firms like Goldman Sachs. Bloomberg said it used eye scanners and heat maps to design the new app, which looks like this:

A Bloomberg spokesperson said the iPad app has been “by far the fastest growing platform” among its subscribers, who each pay around $20,000 for an annual license. In the past, most Bloomberg users licensed a hardware terminal (“the Bloomberg box”) but now 80 percent of them opt instead for “Bloomberg Anywhere,” which lets them log in to various devices though a portable finger-print reader.

John Waanders, the Head of Bloomberg Mobile, said the company has been on BlackBerry since 2001 and then expanded to early mobile devices like pagers and WAP browsers. Since then, it has added a Twitter feed and an app store that features an app called “Angry Bonds.”

In the last few years, Waanders said traders have come to seek out the “lean back” experience associated with tablets, and that 38,000 of them are using the iPad app. This represents a little over 10 percent of the company’s estimated 313,000 global subscribers.

Bloomberg would not comment on the ratio of Apple to BlackBerry users among its customers but said that 50 percent of Bloomberg mobile users accessed the service on more than one device.

The company is owned by the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, and competes with Thompson Reuters to provide financial information to the financial sector.

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Dish Network’s bid for Sprint presents Dan Hesse and Co. with an interesting choice. Analysts point out that Softbank has more than enough money to counter Dish’s $25.5 billion bid, but money aside Dish would make a much better strategic fit for Sprint.

Softbank offers much-needed investment to the still struggling No. 3 U.S. wireless operator. But Dish doesn’t just bring cash; it’s got 4G spectrum and a huge pay TV network to boot. Informa Telecoms & Media Principal Analyst Mike Roberts lays out all of the advantages of a Sprint-Dish marriage:

“First and most importantly, Dish could combine its 2GHz LTE spectrum with the LTE spectrum of Sprint and Clearwire to build one of the strongest LTE spectrum portfolios in US, which would be the foundation for a powerful new competitor in the US telecoms market. Second, using Sprint’s newly-modernized mobile network would give Dish a cost-effective way to deploy LTE in its 2GHz spectrum and meet the FCC’s rollout requirements. Third, if the deal goes ahead, Dish and Sprint could quickly offer TV, broadband and mobile bundles to compete more effectively with larger integrated telecoms players such as Verizon and AT&T.”

In particular, Dish’s spectrum would give Sprint the immediate room it needs to grow its LTE capacity. Sprint’s current LTE network is bit undersized compared to high-capacity 4G networks its competitors are rolling out. While Sprint is planning to buy the remaining stake in Clearwire — which would give it Clearwire’s vast 2.5 GHz holdings — Clearwire is using a different type of LTE technology that could make getting the right consumer devices more difficult. Becoming part of Dish would give it the right kind of licenses to complement Sprint’s current network.

Also, Sprint taking over Clearwire isn’t a given. Several other companies have expressed interest in the 4G operator and its spectrum, and last week Clearwire revealed it just got a new offer from an unnamed entity to acquire its licenses in big cities for between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. The Wall Street Journal pegged that unnamed company as Verizon Wireless.

Given all of the crazy variables in this complex game of spectrum chess, it seems like a Sprint and Dish would form a good match, but the companies haven’t always seen eye-to-eye.

There was once talk of a partnership between the two, using Sprint’s new networks to host Dish’s LTE service. But those talks fizzled, and Sprint and Dish wound up becoming big adversaries, fighting over Clearwire’s future and squabbling about interference issues in their spectrum neighborhood.

Copious amounts of money certainly can heal old wounds, but there’s a question of whether Dish has enough money. Despite Dish’s big war chest, it would still need to go $9 billion further into debt to finance its proposed deal, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King said in a research note. Dish may have just set off a bidding war, but it might not have the money to see it through. According to King:

“We believe that DISH is more strategically desperate for Sprint than is SoftBank; however, SoftBank certainly has deeper pockets. … As such, we believe SoftBank is in a better position, financially speaking, to match DISH’s offer – or raise the offer further – should it choose to do so. It appears to us that Sprint is in a solid position from a negotiating standpoint.”

If the money’s right, Sprint may not care about any of the strategic advantages of a Dish deal. As with all carriers, Sprint’s foremost concern is spectrum and Sprint may be in a position to acquire better licenses with Softbank’s cash.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice advised the Federal Communications Commission to set rules for its forthcoming TV airwaves auction favoring smaller operators like Sprint and T-Mobile over dominant carriers AT&T and Verizon. If FCC does give Sprint an advantage in that auction, it could walk away with some very attractive 600 MHz airwaves without breaking the bank.

Chess photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Elnur

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Winnipeg, Manitoba-based medical diagnostic company Miraculins Inc. has agreed to acquire all assets related to the SCOUT DS technology, a diabetes screening technology, from VeraLight, Inc. Financial terms of the proposed deal were not released. VeraLight, which is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is backed by a mix of U.S. venture capital firms and strategic investors, including Psilos Group, CMEA Ventures, vSpring Capital, EPIC Ventures, Dow Chemical and the Southern Ute Growth Fund.

PRESS RELEASE

Miraculins Executes Term Sheet to Acquire the SCOUT DS®

Non-Invasive Diabetes Screening Technology

World’s First Non-Invasive Diabetes Test Can Play a Critical Role in Global Diabetes Screening

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – April 15, 2013 – Miraculins Inc. (TSX-V:MOM), (“Miraculins” or the “Company”), a medical diagnostic company focused on acquiring, developing and commercializing diagnostic tests and risk assessment technologies for unmet clinical needs, is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding term sheet (“Term Sheet”) with VeraLight, Inc. (“VeraLight”) to acquire all assets related to the SCOUT DS® technology, a groundbreaking diabetes screening technology that non-invasively measures changes in a person’s skin indicative of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, enabling cost-effective, easily accessible screening of those at risk.

The Term Sheet sets out the key financial terms of the proposed acquisition including pricing, future milestone payments, ongoing responsibilities and considerations related to an equity position in Miraculins by VeraLight and participation on Miraculins board of directors. Miraculins has an exclusive period within which to conclude its due diligence process and to finalize definitive documentation. The execution of definitive documentation and the completion of the transaction is subject to all necessary contractual, regulatory and corporate approvals of both Miraculins and VeraLight and the completion of satisfactory due diligence by Miraculins.

The SCOUT DS system is the first non-invasive diabetes screening system in the world designed to provide a highly sensitive and convenient method for screening for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes based on the presence of diabetes-related biomarkers found in the skin. Unlike current screening methods, a SCOUT DS test requires no blood draw, no fasting, and no waiting for a lab result. The patient simply places their forearm on the portable table-top instrument, and a quantitative result is reported in under two minutes.

SCOUT DS is Indicated for Use for the non-invasive screening of individuals 18 years or older who are at risk for prediabetes and/or type 2 diabetes to determine whether diagnostic testing is necessary. Prediabetes is defined as impaired glucose tolerance. SCOUT DS has received clearance from Health Canada for commercial distribution and it has been granted a CE Mark in the European Union, and is also cleared for sale in Mexico. Prior to this acquisition, VeraLight had not yet filed a formal application with the FDA for the clearance of SCOUT DS in the U.S. market. As a result, distribution in the United States of the SCOUT DS system at this time is limited to investigational use only.

In 2010, it was estimated that 629 million adults worldwide had either diabetes or pre-diabetes (Impaired Glucose Tolerance). By 2030, the number is expected to grow to be 910 million adults, an increase of 44%. Today, it is estimated that over 500 million people remain undiagnosed. Complications can begin years before diagnosis, however much of diabetes can be delayed or prevented if detected early. Due to the fact that early diabetes detection is critical in helping stem this epidemic, new tools are needed to play a role in screening for this disease of growing prevalence worldwide.

“There is a tremendous synergy between the SCOUT DS technology and our PreVu Non-Invasive Skin Cholesterol Test,” stated Christopher J. Moreau, President and CEO of Miraculins. “Both technologies non-invasively measure the skin in order to deliver a test result for two of the most serious heath concerns in medicine today, coronary artery disease and diabetes. Adding the SCOUT DS system to our product suite would leverage our existing relationship with current and planned distribution partners worldwide, including our primary sales channel – the retail pharmacy market. We would also be leveraging our experience in manufacturing a sophisticated optical medical device and our existing ISO 13485 quality system. As initial market feedback for the SCOUT DS system has been very positive to date, we look forward to the opportunity to contribute significantly to the ongoing success of the SCOUT DS technology. This proposed acquisition will represent another step towards Miraculins’ goal of becoming a world-class diagnostic, risk assessment and health screening company.”

“We are excited about the proposed transaction with Miraculins, as the SCOUT DS technology would have a significant path to market and renewed opportunity for growth as a result of this relationship,” said Lisa Suennen, Chair of VeraLight Inc. “Early identification and treatment of those at risk for type 2 diabetes is one of the most important public health issues in the world today and the SCOUT can play an instrumental role in addressing this critical issue.”

It is anticipated that definitive documentation will be executed within 45 days. Further updates will be provided upon the execution of definitive documentation. There is, however, no assurance that the parties will enter into definitive documentation or complete the transaction contemplated by the Term Sheet.

About VeraLight

VeraLight, headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a venture-backed medical instrumentation company founded in 2004 to focus on non-invasive screening for type 2 diabetes. VeraLight’s product, the SCOUT DS system, is the first non-invasive diabetes screening system designed to provide a highly sensitive and convenient method for screening for pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes based on the presence of diabetes-related biomarkers found in skin. Unlike current screening methods, a SCOUT DS test requires no blood draw, no fasting, and no waiting for a lab result. The product has been used and validated in thousands of patients around the world. For more information visit http://www.veralight.com

About Miraculins Inc.

Miraculins is a medical diagnostic company focused on acquiring, developing and commercializing non-invasive tests for unmet clinical needs. A significant number of promising diagnostic opportunities remain un-commercialized because of the sizable gap between the discovery stage, when research institutions are typically involved, and the commercialization stage, when the larger commercial enterprises become interested. Miraculins has direct experience in bridging this gap. The Company’s PreVu® technology is a revolutionary new coronary artery disease risk assessment technology that measures cholesterol levels in a patient’s skin non-invasively, painlessly and without the need for fasting. Miraculins is also advancing a suite of biomarkers to aid in the early detection of the devastating disease of pregnancy known as preeclampsia. The lead marker in the Company’s preeclampsia program is partnered with Alere Inc., one of the world’s largest diagnostic companies. For more information visit www.miraculins.com.

For more information, please contact:

Christopher J. Moreau Lisa Suennen

President & CEO Chairman, VeraLight

Miraculins Inc. Managing Member, Psilos Group

Ph: 204-477-7599 Ph: 415-945-7010

Fax: 204-453-1596 [email protected]

[email protected]

www.miraculins.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

PreVu® is a registered trademark of Miraculins Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2013.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Miraculins Buys SCOUT DS Technology From VC-Backed Veralight appeared first on peHUB.

Google has set up a tool to help people find loved ones after the explosions in Boston today. This is part of Google.org’s Person Finder project. The tool can be used both to try and locate a person and to share info about someone.

Click the below image to get to the site:

Here are some of the latest tweets on “boston marathon” via Twitter’s widget:

More on the explosions here.

MobiSystems full office suite for Android devices, OfficeSuite 7, received an update today that adds some new tools to make document creation and editing easier for users. In Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, users can now insert an image directly from their camera. Other improvements are specific to different types of files. For Word documents, you can now launch a Google search from within the document, resize tables, and replace images. PowerPoint users now have support for links and shadows in their documents. Users working on Excel files will enjoy better font formatting and the ability to autofill with cell dragging, an improved user interface, and the ability to reorder sheets.

At the universal level, the app now supports dual screens and issues with QuickSpell have been sorted out. Integration with the Oxford Dictionary of English is now possible, although that integration is sold as a separate add-on product. If you are interested in grabbing this latest update, just use one of the Google Play Store links below. The full app is available for $14.99 from the Play Store and works on Android 2.2 or higher.

Google Play Download Link

Come comment on this article: New tools available in latest OfficeSuite 7 update

Here’s another big win for open standards: Verizon Terremark, the cloud computing arm of the huge telco, says it is investing in Xen project and CloudStack. These are the company’s first active investments in open cloud projects.  While Verizon Terremark says it has long been supportive of open standards, it believes now is the right time to get formally involved in the open-standard ecosystem.

It’s an interesting revelation, given the company’s very VMWare roots. VMware was an investor in Terremark, which was one of the first companies to roll out a vCloud-based public cloud offering. So why the open source love now?

Verizon Terremark believes supporting open source programs is important because they increase the overall market acceptance of these platforms, thus allowing the company to provide additional choice to its customers. The bottom line: the company believes open standards are driving innovation, and it needs to be able to provide choice as hybrid cloud becomes the major play going forward.

Participating in Cloudstack, Contributing to Xen

The company is endorsing the Cloudstack project and actively participating in the community. With Xen, It is making a monetary contribution to the development project and joining the Linux foundation as an advisory board member (the Linux Foundation is the new home of the Xen project).

The investment grew out of the existing close relationship with Citrix, the company said. Citrix currently supports the Verizon Terremark portfolio of enterprise-class IT services. As open cloud wars are heating up, Verizon Terremark is a nice notch in the belt of CloudStack. There’s room for more than one open cloud standard, but there’s definitely a race to win support from the enterprise heavyweights.

Verizon Terremark says it is investing in technologies that allow it to bring high quality products to market, while also helping participate in the long term development of key components of the cloud service delivery platform.

“From our perspective, investing in open source technologies at this stage of market development makes sense because it accelerates sharing, technology and ecosystem growth and reduces development and go-to-market costs,” writes Chris Drumgoole, SVP Global Operations, in a company blog.

Focus on Security

On one hand, it’s surprising given Verizon Terremark’s history with VMWare, but makes sense given its relationship with Citrix. In terms of cloud, the company is largely identified as a VMware shop, focusing on security-centric verticals such as its large federal business.
However, even the most enterprise-centric companies are embracing open standards. Strategies are shifting to supporting hybrid infrastructures, public and private cloud deployments, so companies can no longer solely focus on one type of cloud, but rather enabling cloud usage as a whole.

Verizon Terremark sees many benefits in supporting open standards, with Drumgoogle listing some in his blog post:

• API, application and technology sharing – Open source virtualization platform capabilities and applications make it easier and faster to develop programs and reduce training and compliance costs for end users. Technology sharing leads to higher quality, more robust implementations.
• Ecosystem and market growth – Open standards allows developers to build rich systems of cooperating solutions which foster a market and encourage a higher level of adoption by businesses of all sizes as well as developers and consumers.
• Cost reductions – Standards lower the barrier to entry for new technology companies as well as service costs for established players. End users ultimately win with increased price competition and innovation.

The road forward is paved with Open Standards. All of the large OEMs hopping on OpenStack is one example of this mentality permeating throughout the industry. Verizon Terremark is spreading its chips, hedging its bets and committing to moving cloud forward in general, because of potential it has on its business. Although this is its first active investment in Open Cloud projects, it will definitely not be the last in terms of supporting the open source movement.

An 8-year prison sentence for a convicted child pornographer has been vacated and remanded for resentencing following a procedural error that involved the judge in the case going off on a completely unnecessary rant about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. The case is even odder when you understand that the crimes in question had absolutely nothing to do with Facebook.

56-year-old Laura Culver was sentenced on January 30th to 96 months in jail for producing child pornography. Back in 2001 and 2002, Culver collaborated with a man named Edgardo Sensi to film an 8-year-old girl engaged in various sexual acts. Pretty disgusting stuff. So, an 8-year prison sentence is not unreasonable, right?

Well no, but in this specific case the sentence is being thrown out. An appeals court has ruled that the judge’s actions during sentencing demand that the sentence be vacated and reworked.

While explaining Culver’s sentence, U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton reportedly went on some sort of unrelated Facebook-bashing tangent where he ended up blaming Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for “hurting a lot of people.”

The records are sealed, but the appeals court, in its decision, paints a pretty clear picture of what the judge was ranting about.

In justifying its decision to impose a sentence of eight years instead of six, the district court referenced “Facebook, and things like it, and society has changed.” … The court speculated that the proliferation of Facebook would facilitate an increase in child pornography cases. The court said it hoped Mark Zuckerberg (who founded Facebook) was “enjoying all his money because…he’s going to hurt a lot of people….”

But Facebook had nothing to do with Culver’s case. In fact, the internet itself didn’t even play a factor in it.

The government argues that the district court was merely concerned about the extent to which various new technologies may facilitate child pornography, rather than Facebook specifically. In that sense, Facebook was a reference to the internet, using synecdoche. But the government does not explain (because it cannot) the role of new technology in this case. Culver did not use the internet to commit her crime, and it should not have played a predominant role in her sentencing.

The appeals court makes a point to say that the ruling in no way suggests that the 8-year sentence for Culver’s crimes is “substantively unreasonable.” In fact, it’s actually well under the recommended guidelines for such a crime.

“Still, that discretion should be exercised without the influence of procedural error.”

What a truly terrible, and odd case.

[via Techdirt]

If you find Finder frustratingly limited, then you’ll be in the market for a replacement/enhancement tool. There are plenty of paid-for Finder enhancements out there, but over the past year or so they’ve been increasingly put to the shade by a fabulous, and rapidly developing, free tool called XtraFinder 0.16.1.

We’ve been checking back occasionally to see how XtraFinder is developing, and with version 0.16.1 now out, there have been a staggering 20 updates since we last looked at it back in September, so we thought it was the perfect time to bring you up to speed.

At its heart, XtraFinder adds two key tools to Finder windows to instantly make them more appealing: tabs and dual-panel windows. This makes it easy to browse multiple folders without opening a chaotic mess of separate windows, while dual-paned windows simplify the task of moving or copying files between two locations.

Since version 0.8.4 was released, the app has continued to add features and improve stability at a frightening pace – we use it daily on our Mac in preference to Finder itself, and have rarely run into problems with it. If you’ve held off installing XtraFinder since our last report, here are some of the new features that may tempt you to finally give it a whirl.

The tabs feature has improved significantly – not only is dragging the tab’s actual icon now supported, but you can also drop files on a tab to move them to its location. When in dual-panel mode, you can opt to show just one Sidebar to free up screen real-estate, plus middle-clicking on a Sidebar shortcut opens that location in its own tab. It’s also now possible to reopen closed tabs and even the Finder window itself.

You can also customise the tabs themselves: a new Opera option sits alongside the default Google Chrome look, while a narrow tabs option displays the tabs alongside the close/maximise/hide buttons rather than beneath them.

A number of new shortcuts have been added to the Finder menus: open a new Terminal (or iTerm/XTerm) window to the current location, hide the desktop and create a symbolic link. Another option allows users to customise the New File templates, while the Refresh option for refreshing a window’s contents can now be evoked from the context menu.

Other options include being able to have the Name column adjust automatically depending on contents, plus you can opt to add XtraFinder’s own functions to the toolbar and restore the colourful Sidebar icons to Lion and Mountain Lion. You can even customise the background and text colour of the Finder window itself.

Thankfully, despite the ever-increasing feature list, Trank Ny Am Software is sensible enough to make sure they’re all optional, so you can pick choose exactly which bits of XtraFinder you want, ensuring it works to your specifications and not the other way round.

XtraFinder 0.16.1 is available now as a freeware download for Macs running OS X 10.6 or later.

Photo Credit: Kachan Eduard/Shutterstock

Television and movie producer Lisa Sanderson is suing Garth Brooks. A complaint was filed on Monday for violation of Labor Code Section 201, breach of oral agreement, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and fraud.

The complaint begins:

Country music legend Garth Brooks (“Brooks”) would like his adoring fans to believe that he is a humble and highly principled “everyman,” despite his phenomenal success in the music industry. In reality, however, Brooks is a paranoid, angry, deceitful and vindictive man who will turn against those closest to him on a dime. Brooks is willing to lie to avoid paying his debts, and he revels in using his vast wealth and influence to crush anyone who Brooks believes is standing in the way of him getting what he wants.

Here’s the complaint in its entirety (via THR):

Sanderson is looking to get $425,000 in damages, claiming that she worked with Brooks for 20 years, and that she “worked tirelessly” to make his dream of a successful film and television career a reality. The complaint alleges that Brooks failed to pay her money she was promised.

One interesting nugget from the complaint is an allegation that Brooks turned down a role in “Saving Private Ryan” because “he wanted to be the star and was unwilling to share the limelight” with Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Edward Burns.

Image: Garth Brooks alter ego Chris Gaines

ECPA, or the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, has long been in need of an update. The Senate tried last year, but ran out of time. Now it’s a priority and it will hopefully get the time it deserves this week.

The Hill reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to mark-up Sen. Patrick Leahy’s ECPA amendment on Thursday morning. S.607 would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant when requesting emails as part of an investigation. The current law under ECPA requires a warrant only if the email is less than 180 days old. An older email, or one that’s already been opened, only requires a subpoena under current law.

Sen. Leahy issued the following statement today in regards to the mark-up:

“Like many Americans, I am concerned about the growing and unwelcome intrusions into our private lives in cyberspace. I have long believed that our government should obtain a search warrant — issued by a court — before gaining access to our email and other private communications. This week the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin consideration of legislation that I authored with Republican Senator Mike Lee to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to make sure that this occurs, and that the overall privacy protections for our email and other electronic communications are strengthened. Safeguarding Americans’ privacy rights is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue — it is something that is important to all Americans, regardless of political party or ideology. I hope that all members of Congress share this view and will support this timely and significant legislation that upholds Americans’ privacy rights.”

Sen. Leahy’s proposed ECPA amendment was introduced in late March, but one event in particular may have forced his hand to push ECPA reform faster than he may have planned. The ACLU obtained a number of documents from the IRS that suggested the agency obtained emails without a warrant, and said that Internet users “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

In response, Rep. Charles Boustany sent a letter to the IRS asking the agency to explain its email policy. It’s highly unlikely that the agency would answer all of the questions posed by Rep. Boustany, but it did say that it “treats taxpayers with respect” and “does not use emails to target taxpayers.”

Sen. Leahy’s bill is a great first step to updating the decades old ECPA, but a House vote this week could be a different first step in making an updated ECPA a moot point. CISPA, a bill that would let companies share you private information with the government, will go to the House floor for a vote this week. If it somehow makes its way into law, it would allow companies to share your emails and much more with the government while enjoying total immunity in the case the government uses that information for anything illegal. Fortunately, the White House has serious reservations, but it didn’t go so far as to issue a veto threat.

We’ll keep following both ECPA and CISPA as they make their way through the legislature over the coming months. We can only hope that the former makes its way all way through, and the latter is treated to the same ignoble death its predecessor was dealt last year.