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posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 21 2017, @12:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-the-theory dept.

A rare alliance of Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress could lead to increased restrictions on how police officers can deploy so-called Stingray cell phone trackers. These devices are regularly used to investigate suspected criminals, but the nature of the system means a lot of innocent Americans are caught up in the dragnet. This bill would force police to get warrants before using Stingrays.

The legislation was introduced Wednesday, and is called the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act. Congress does love its clever acronyms. The bill was sponsored by unlikely allies Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich). That means essentially the same bill exists in the House and Senate, which both need to pass the legislation before it can become a law.

[...] Police have long maintained that the use of Stingrays does not constitute a "search," and as such does not require a warrant. The GPS bill seeks to force warrants before a Stingray could be used. That wouldn't stop Stingrays from being used in the US, of course. However, it would vastly reduce the frequency.

[...] If the bill is passed by Congress, it's up to President Trump to sign it. If law enforcement groups oppose it, he may decline to do so.

Source:

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/244621-bipartisan-bill-force-police-get-warrants-using-stingray-cell-tracker


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday February 21 2017, @12:49AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 21 2017, @12:49AM (#469518)

    Congressmen opposed to cop unions will feel safer when they call their mistresses, boyfriends and escorts.
    As a bonus, getting a warrant or asking the NSA to catch Bad Guys isn't a very high controversial threshold to have to clear, allowing them to parade as Freedom protectors.

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  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday February 21 2017, @03:36AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday February 21 2017, @03:36AM (#469557) Homepage

    Snowden said that the system in place could be abused for the purpose of blackmailing, and I think what's happening is that politicians and others are starting to fall victim to blackmail (with the first obvious casualty being John Petraeus) -- even if they rightly don't bring that to public attention, word gets around.

    J. Edgar-era FBI had plenty of dirt on all kinds of public figures, and much of that dirt was dubiously collected.

    Oh, and then there's this. [theguardian.com]

    If that information didn't cause a violent revolt against the American intelligence apparatus, then nothing will.