The Senata Judiciary Committee has passed an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act on Thursday. Senator Patrick Leahy wrote the bill, after taking the lead on updating the original 1986 act over two years ago. The bill is not expected to enter Congress for negotations until next year and is already subject to criticism from lawmakers that the bill does not yet strike the correct balance between public privacy and safety. Nevertheless, the Center for Democracy and Technology hailed the vote as "historic."

The Obama campaign has released new information about the email marketing program used to organize and mobilize supporters, particularly for fundraising. The campaign reports that most of the $690 million raised online is attributable to emails, many of which were put through rigorous subject line testing of up to 18 different versions. The key learnings from the process were that many of the biggest breakthroughs were from the unlikeliest tactics, and also that all breakthroughs had a relatively short shelf-life, requiring continuous testing. 

Cyber Monday has evolved into Cyber Week, with many retailers continuing to pump the holiday with extended deadlines and new offers. Dick's Sporting Googs, Toys "R" Us, Avon, Overstock, Backcountry and many others continue to reference the shopping season.

For a case study, MarketingSherpa tested two versions of a webinar promotion using the same subject line but different senders. One version was sent from "MarketingSherpa" while the other sender included a person's name along with the company. The version containing the personal name saw a 137% increase in open rate. The emails differed internally as well, with the "personal touch" version personalized with the recipient's name in the greeting, and using a less designed template to create the feel of a more personal note, resulting in a lift of 127% in click-throughs. The company does admit the test was …

According to new data from Experian Marketing Services, 46% of holiday emails sent during the week of November 18th were opened on a mobile device. The company also reports that email volume was up 23% on Thanksgiving and 29% on Cyber Monday over 2011. 

The bill introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Act would add new safeguards to personal emails, but law enforcement experts do not believe the law - if passed - would provide any meaningful hindrances to law enforcement. Under the proposed law, enforcement agents would need a warrant to search emails more than 180 days old, when currently they only need to swear that the contents are relevant to an investigation. But for emails less than 180 days old, a warrant is needed even under the 1986 version of the law. Says the former president of …

B-to-B advertising network NetLine Corporation has announced a partnership with marketing automation platform Marketo. Netline now offers lead generation services for the Marketo LauchPoint Ecosystem, using ads on its network to identify and deliver prospects directly into the Marketo platform.

Remedy Health Media has launched Pathient Health Services (PHS), an email newsletter service that allows physicians to easily communicate with their patients via monthly newsletters. The program integrates with software used by physicians for patient records, and automatically populates newsletters with content relevant to a patient's condition. Remedy says that the program was born out of Obamacare, which requires doctors to install an in-office patient data management software platform to improve services and proactive care.

Inbox management company PhilterIt launched today a tool that reorganizes a consumer's inbox by sender, allowing visual scanning of messages not by subject line, but by the sender's icon or a brand logo. The service is aimed at helping consumers control "ham" - the opt-in messages from trusted brands that are not as urgent as personal or business messages. PhilterIt is currently available as a Chrome extension for Gmail. 

People search company Inteligator has added email addresses to its reverse lookup tool, allowing customers to search for email addresses using a person's name. The company reports it has over 1 billion records in its database, representing 90% of US citizens.