A new bill in the US Senate would toughen the standards for government searches of cellphones and online data. Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy's ECPA Amendments Act would require that the government get a court warrant either to track a cellphone's location or to get copies of virtually any digital messaging, including e-mail, instant messaging, or social network conversations. Extra safeguards would also be in place to protect the data stored both by carriers and on the devices themselves, including smartphones.
