According to CNET, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has prepared a bill for review by the House of Representatives that will require police to obtain a warrant before tracking any car or mobile device using GPS.
Senator Wyden called attention to the imminent dangers of unregulated GPS tracking by stating, “I think that a lot of people have not really put their arms around the dimensions of this, the fact that everybody’s got a handheld electronic device, a cell phone, a GPS system. Everybody’s carrying them around everywhere and probably aren’t thinking that much about the fact that someone may be keeping tabs on them.”
Currently, outdated and vaguely-worded legislation like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 allows the federal government to tap telephones in “national security” cases. In 2008, T-Mobile was involved in a criminal investigation of a marriage fraud scheme and was ordered to “disclose at such intervals and times as directed by (the Department of Homeland Security), latitude and longitude data that establishes the approximate positions of the Subject Wireless Telephone, by unobtrusively initiating a signal on its network that will enable it to determine the locations of the Subject Wireless Telephone.”
His proposal states, “No person may acquire the geolocation information of a person” for “law enforcement or intelligence purposes except pursuant to a warrant” or through the other procedures spelled out in the draft. The proposed bill limits the use of intercepted geolocation information in court unless proper procedures are followed. Another allows someone whose location data was “intercepted, disclosed, or intentionally used in violation of” the law to file a civil lawsuit and recover actual damages or $10,000 in statutory damages.
Strong support from Internet companies, civil libertarians and wireless carriers are behind Senator Wyden and his bill. Strong opposition from law enforcement is expected. Now it is up to Congress to clear any discrepancies.
