UPDATE 11/29/2012, 11:30 AM: The privacy bill easily passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a voice vote, but it faces a tough fight in the rest of the Senate and the GOP controlled House.

If the authorities want to rummage through your house or tap your phone, they need a warrant. But law enforcement agencies currently enjoy easy access to the most intimate aspects of your online life—everything from emails to pictures to chat logs. Law enforcement officials would like to keep it that way, but on Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a plan that would require the government to meet the same legal standard to rifle through your inbox as it would to search your underwear drawer.