Many interactive gaming platforms and sites provide users the ability to communicate with other users through chat or other messaging systems, or allow their users to store and process data in the service.  The Electronic Communications Privacy Act ("ECPA") is the federal law that regulates how these types of services can access, use, and disclose information about their users and the communications users send through or store in the service.

This session provided a high-level overview of ECPA and addressed the following issues, among others:

• Is my service even covered by ECPA?  Are we an electronic communications service or a remote computing service?
• When and how can a covered service provider lawfully access or use its users information or communications?
• What if a we want to disclose information about our users or their communications?  Can we lawfully do so under ECPA and, if so, how?
• When the government asks for information--with a subpoena, court order, or search warrant--how is a covered service provider required to respond?
• What about civil litigants or other people seeking information with subpoena or otherwise?  How can and should we respond?
• Can we tell our users when the government or someone else requests their information or communications?

Also covered was the topic of location-based information, which is currently receiving increased attention from Congress, with at least three pieces of legislation aimed at regulating the collection and use of location-based information.