Adapting US Privacy Laws to the Internet: Is Patching Enough?

The current laws addressing privacy in the United States (US) vary greatly both in number and in level of government to which they are applied and enforced. As new technologies are created existing laws are modified to address these technologies, and when a law cannot be modified new laws are created. This modification of older laws and creation of situation specific laws has resulted in a patchwork of privacy laws, which both protect and harm the citizen´s privacy. This paper examines the US federal laws which address two different Internet technologies (websites and email). These laws are examined for their effects on privacy both positive and negative. This paper seeks to show that the current privacy laws and their patchwork nature are not effective, and will present the steps towards repairing this system.