In a sign of our elected officials catching up with the technological times, there is a recent flurry of activity in the U.S. Congress and in at least two state legislative houses this month concerning potential bills that would require law enforcement to get a warrant to obtain location information from a GPS or other electronic device. The proposed bill, The Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act, known as H.R. 983, was introduced earlier this month in the U.S. House of Representatives, has bipartisan support and additionally requires police to get a warrant before checking emails. This would seek to amend a bill from 1986 that just permits a simple administrative subpoena before someone’s emails could be taken by law enforcement.
There was a hearing yesterday afternoon in Augusta, Maine on a similar bill that would require police to get a judge’s approval and warrant to track people through their cell phones or other electronic device. This bill, H.R. 415, is sponsored by Assistant Republican Senator Roger Katz and has also claims bipartisan support. Maine does not have an official policy regarding warrants to track suspects or people of interest with their cell phones.
And similarly down south in the Sunshine State, HB 797, sponsored by Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, would require a search warrant before law enforcement could search through the private data of an individual’s cell phone. It also prohibits using a device’s tracking or location technology without prior court approval.
We are not sure why this is happening now, but it does seem that after 27 years, it is time to take a further look at the laws concerning privacy, smartphone GPS technology and law enforcement access.
The post Tracking Federal and State GPS Legislation appeared first on PrivacyNet.
