Senate and congressional lawmakers have proposed a joint bill that would require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before collecting geolocation data.
Wired reports that the bill “is an attempt to set a nationwide standard on not only GPS tracking, but on the collection of cellphone location data and any other geolocational data that could be introduced by future technologies.”
The bill aims to protect personal privacy following a Supreme Court decision earlier this year that classified placing a GPS tracking device in someone’s vehicle as a Fourth Amendment violation. However, the ruling “fell short of asserting that such tracking amounted to the kind of search that should always require a warrant and probable cause,” reports Wired.
Proponents of the bill want restrictions on geolocation tracking to mirror the legislation for home searches. Supporters especially want law enforcement to secure probable cause before beginning searches.
“Requiring agents to obtain such warrants is backward logic, since they often use geolocation data they’ve collected on an individual in order to then obtain a probable cause warrant for further collection of evidence, according to John Ramsey, national vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, who spoke to the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security,” explains the article.
Senate and congressional lawmakers have proposed a joint bill that would require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before collecting geolocation data.
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