A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers today
introduced a bill that would require US police agencies to obtain a
warrant before deploying cell-site simulation surveillance devices known
as “stingrays,” reports USA Today. Stingrays are typically used by police to triangulate a criminal suspect’s location based on data emitted from their smartphones or wearable devices with cellular connectivity.
Stingrays are a controversial form of surveillance
technology as it can accurately pinpoint a suspect’s location, but can
also intercept data from innocent bystanders. Lawmakers are hoping the
bill, titled the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, can
curb potential abuse of the technology and promote transparency when
police agencies use the device.
"As we welcome innovative technologies that help fight
crime, we must be mindful of the potential for abuse." Jason Chaffetz,
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, said.
"When individuals are tracked in this way, the government is able to
generate a profile of a person’s public movements that includes details
about a person’s familial, political, professional, religious, and other
intimate associations,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, added.
A recent investigation found that the Justice Department and Homeland Security spent $71 million and $24 million,
respectively, on stingray devices between fiscal years 2010 and 2014.
FBI Director James Comey has also made public statements in favor of
stingrays, calling them crucial to finding and capturing criminals.
“It’s not about intercepting their calls, their communications,” he said in 2014.
“It’s how we find killers. It’s how we find kidnappers. It’s how we
find drug dealers. It’s how we find missing children. It’s how we find
pedophiles.”
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