(FORTUNE Magazine) – A FEDERAL INVESTIGATOR, acting without a search warrant, gains access to incriminating evidence stored in a computer databank. A corporate spy picks up trade secrets as he monitors the satellite feeds of a competitor's weekly sales meeting. A retiree spends his spare time listening in on steamy conversations originating from a car telephone owned by an unsuspecting executive. Such snooping activities are clearly illegal, right? Wrong. Federal statutes protect mail and traditional telephone communications from unauthorized surveillance, but not new technologies such as electronic mail, databanks, video teleconferencing, and cellular mobile telephones. An impressive group of companies, including AT&T, General Electric, General Motors, and IBM, has lined up behind legislation that would change that. The bills, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Representative Robert Kastenmeier (D-Wisconsin), would impose civil and criminal penalties on electronic snoopers and require the government to obtain a court order before gaining access to information in a computer system. With some 40 cosponsors and broad support in the business community, the bills stand a good chance of passing this year. Nobody knows for sure how much electronic surveillance is going on, but technology experts say the problem has been increasing recently. The fast- growing car phone industry, which now has about 350,000 customers in 80 U.S. markets, is probably the most vulnerable to eavesdropping. The reason: scanning devices, sold in many retail stores for about $600, allow people to listen in on conversations transmitted on cellular frequencies. One manufacturer advertises that its scanner enables users to overhear conversations ''that offer more real-life intrigue than most soap operas.'' The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, whose members include the regional Bell telephone companies and Metromedia, doesn't find these ads amusing. Executive Director Robert Maher worries that the industry's growth will be stunted unless Congress enacts privacy legislation. Other companies that transmit, store, and process data, including GTE's electronic mail division and EDS, a subsidiary of General Motors, are also backing the Leahy-Kastenmeier bill. One of their main concerns: the threat of government requests, unaccompanied by search warrants, for access to customer records. The American Civil Liberties Union has similar worries. Says Jerry J. Berman, the ACLU's privacy expert: ''If you want to get mail out of the post office, you've got to go to court and get a search warrant. We think that electronic mail should have the same protection as first-class mail.'' / The main obstacle to quick approval of privacy legislation is the Justice Department, which is concerned that some provisions in the bill would hamper law enforcement. House and Senate staffers have been meeting with Justice Department officials, however, and both sides are optimistic about achieving a compromise.