Outdated digital privacy regulations are increasingly allowing law enforcement agencies to use Internet companies and popular social networks to do their spying. [...] as the Senate considers amending the privacy act to make law enforcement more accountable to the courts, Internet providers and service companies find themselves as awkward middlemen between the government and Web users. [...] Internet service providers such as AT&T and Verizon hold reams of data pertaining to customers' Internet Provider addresses, Web histories, locations and personal information. Critics point out that because of the outdated language in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, personal information can be accessed with a subpoena from a prosecutor - not through a warrant, which requires the review and blessing of a judge. The ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, law professors and judges, and the Digital Due Process organization - a group that spans more than 65 technology companies and political organizations from both sides of the aisle - all agree that the privacy act needs to be updated as soon as possible. The Association of National Advertisers sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer professing "profound disappointment" that the default setting for the upcoming version of Internet Explorer would be "do not track." In the first half of 2012, Google says, governments in the United States made 7,969 requests for information on users; With its search engine, email client Gmail, office suite Docs and video-sharing YouTube - to name just a handful of services - the company has a huge window into how people use the Web.
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