“The U.S. Congress needs to pass legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to get permission from a judge before tracking suspects through their mobile phones, instead of the now-common practice of tracking a mobile subscriber’s location after a prosecutor-issued subpoena, two U.S. lawmakers said Tuesday,” Grant Gross reports for IDG News Service.
“Senators Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, joined several advocacy groups from across the political spectrum to push for the passage of the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, introduced back in June,” Gross reports. “The legislation would require U.S. law enforcement agencies, in most cases, to get court-ordered warrants to track suspects through GPS information on smartphones and other mobile devices.”
Gross reports, “The two senators used the anniversary of ECPA as a hook to push for passage of the GPS Act and to host a retro tech fair featuring products marketed in 1986. Joining Wyden and Kirk were the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the American Civil Liberties Union, the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, among other groups… Kirk, a new sponsor of the GPS Act, said the bill is a good first step toward protecting the privacy of U.S. residents, although more sweeping changes to ECPA may be needed. ‘Government needs restrictions,'” added Fred Smith Jr., president and founder of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
I can’t wait to see the resident MDN pseudoconservatives try to paint this as a bad thing.
Dude I’m afraid you have your ideologies a bit confused (even reversed). I imagine few conservatives (neo or otherwise) would appose a law protecting the privacy of citizens.
Generally conservatives favor less government and government power (and intervention) while liberals & “new world socialists” favor larger government and government power (particularly centralized).
Of course the Democrat and Republican parties can complicate these ideologies somewhat (ie there are conservative leaning democrats and liberal leaning republicans)- typically democrats favor a larger and stronger federal government, where republicans favor less federal government size and power.
the suspects shurely wont notice that. and they are of course not able to react on it, just by buying another pre-paid device.
i understand that paralyzed fox news viewers are looking for help to overcome their artificial panic, when it comes to terror. but the us senators would look like amateurs when they underestimate real terrorists that much.
tracking all of us would be the only consequence. by that i am allowed to call anybody a potential terrorist.
and that is worse than stasi in a hundred years!
calm down, start thinking. its always fear that makes the human brain a bad consultant…
Yay! Privacy. I hope a movement occurs to reclaim this lost precious treasure. Maybe also require a warrant for police to hack your iPhone or ipad or your MacBook. For a while now, we’ve been turning into a KGB state. As it is, the authorities are not accountable for all the power being bestowed on them. Agencies who supposedly police other agencies are notorious, even expected, to look the other way.
You people are just stupid …. The police or FBI can track my phone any time … Why … Cause they never will…, why … Because I am not a criminal…. And neither are you…. Oh I know you must protect our liberty… You paranoid freaks…. I would prefer the police protect my life and family …. This is falling on deaf ears so I don’t know why I bother….
a real man protects his own family.
Oh please… So now I need a gun right… Get a grip…. I must assume you are A citizen that breaks the law, needs a gun and fears police tracking him down… I get it now… But I will still let the police protect me from YOU.
You’re right. Anyone can do bad. That’s why the police shouldn’t have more power, and citizens should have more of their power back. The balance of power is tipped too far In favor of authorities that past experience has taught me not to trust.
Unfortunately the police probably won’t protect you. They are too busy chasing speeding cars and what not. But they will probably do a fine follow-up investigation if you’re murdered. (I don’t own a gun either, but neither do I expect the police to be close by when a crime occurs, so it is my job to protect myself and those around me. And yours.)
Please post your real name and address so I can pull a home invasion on your pansy ass. I won’t need a gun to beat the crap out of you and steal everything you have. And just for fun, if you have a dog or cat I will rape the hell out of it!
My friend, you attitude (if sincere) is frightening, at least to me. What you are saying is only a contextual switch to, sure the police can search my home and business anytime they want (without reasonable cause), because I haven’t done anything wrong.
Due process, assumed innocence and reasonable cause for search and seizure are the cornerstone of democracy, if we give those rights up we are headed for disaster.
Idiocy is bi-partisan.
Hear! Hear!
Sir we are already in the midst of disaster but not because of “new” police abuses of power… Our enemies do not have the same rules governing their actions designed to bring us down…. It is a new age, one in which new technologies are developing so quickly it is beyond the ability of slow moving democracies to respond effectively …. You ask for your governments protection ( and don’t give me that you will protect yourself nonsense) And you want to tell them how to do it. The people who protect you are citizens just like you …. Except they have put their money where their mouth is… Sure their will be some abuses. There always have been… How many people have been unjustly convicted …hundreds… But that’s because people f$&k up every institution…. It does not make the institution the culprit…I am not afraid of my fellow citizens in law enforcement… Why would they want to search my home and business… Because it’s a slow day and they have nothing to do…be realistic, as a law abiding citizen you have NOTHING to fear from the enforcers of law… They could care less about you with regards to searches etc…. So quit spouting this ” I am a concerned American bs”… If you were you would be concerned about giving those who protect you the tools they need to protect their lives while they do it.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” — Benjamin Franklin. (1706-1790)
You obviously don’t know about China and the former USSR and other past and present police-states. History shows power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. After the Iraq war, there were countless revenge-killings and mass murders. I’m sure the authorities had some hand in a little of that too. Don’t think those people in Iraq or in other countries, past or present are different than us. That we’re more civilized. All these past atrocities are possible in all of us, especially the police, who are the type of people attracted to trouble. The less power the police have, the better. Citizens should have every right to bear arms and protect themselves. And crazies who invade homes should have a bullet with their name on it waiting for them in these homes. Power to the people.
Government won’t be happy until they r in every crevasse of your life! This is what democrats and a few republicans want. Total invasion of Privacy. Socialism is alive and well in Obamaland!