The FBI said Wednesday it would not disclose details of its hack of an iPhone used by one of the shooters in last year's San Bernardino killing spree.

The federal law enforcement agency, which waged a court battle to compel Apple to help unlock the device, said the reason for its decision was a technical one: it did not have the details from the outside party.

"The FBI purchased the method from an outside party so that we could unlock the San Bernardino device," said a statement from Amy Hess, the FBI's executive assistant director for science and technology.

"We did not, however, purchase the rights to technical details about how the method functions, or the nature and extent of any vulnerability upon which the method may rely in order to operate."

The FBI, which last month withdrew its court request and averted a hotly contested court ruling, paid more than $1 million to an unidentified third party to break into the phone.

The agency has not disclosed what it found on the phone, but has argued it was important for its investigation in a major national security case.

Some activists had argued that the FBI should disclose the method for breaking into the phone under a policy outlined by the US administration, known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, which allows for the patching of software and hardware weaknesses to protect against hackers.

But Hess said that "currently we do not have enough technical information about any vulnerability that would permit any meaningful review under the VEP process."

Apple and its backers had opposed the FBI's efforts to force the iPhone maker to weaken its operating system, claiming that would open doors for hackers and others.

Hess said the FBI normally "must maintain confidentiality" about its actions on vulnerabilities but that it chose to make the matter public due to "the extraordinary nature of this particular case, the intense public interest in it, and the fact that the FBI already has disclosed publicly the existence of the method."

US House passes email privacy bill
Washington (AFP) April 27, 2016 - US lawmakers Wednesday approved a bill to boost privacy protection for email and other electronic communication, closing key loopholes in digital data protection.

By a vote of 419-0, the House of Representatives approved the measure that requires court orders to access emails, text messages and data stored in the Internet "cloud" for criminal and civil investigations.

Representative Bob Goodlatte said the passage showed "broad consensus" that a 1986 law on electronic communications "is outdated and contains insufficient protections for Americans' privacy."

"The law sets forth a system to protect the privacy rights of customers and subscribers of computer network service providers and governs requests to obtain stored content, records or other information which includes stored emails, text or instant messages, documents, videos, or sound recordings stored in the cloud," the lawmaker said.

The bill, which still must pass the Senate and get White House approval, had support from a broad coalition of technology firms, civil liberties groups and trade associations.

"The level of bipartisan support for this bill is a reflection of public's strong belief that the government must respect and protect privacy rights in the digital age," said Neema Singh Guliani of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Now it's the Senate's turn to pass this important bill and strengthen it by including a requirement that the government inform people when it forces companies to turn over their information."

The bill eliminates a provision in the 1986 law which stated that emails and other communications stored more than 180 days were effectively abandoned, and that officials would not need a warrant to access them.

"Today's vote is a clear, bipartisan sign that it's time for federal law to recognize the realities of today's data storage," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group representing more than 2,000 companies.

Chris Calabrese of the Center for Democracy and Technology said the bill modernizes privacy protection.

"With the rise of cloud computing, our emails, photos and texts are stored with third parties," he said in a statement.

"In order for the law to keep up with technology and users' reasonable expectation of privacy, that information must be protected by a search warrant. That's the same constitutional standard that protects the information we store in our homes."