Help restore the 4th amendment

by Skeptikos | Jul 9, 2011 | 0 comments

Randolph Holhut in the Windham County Commons reports that U.S. Representative Peter Welch, of Vermont, is cosponsoring a bill which would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before using a person’s GPS information.

Because it’s easier than trailing someone in person and court approval is unnecessary, the FBI now commonly attaches GPS trackers to people’s cars. According to Wired, “The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled last year that using a GPS tracker was no different than physically trailing a suspect in public, and that such surveillance was not protected by the Fourth Amendment, even if agents placed the device on a suspect’s car while it was parked in his driveway.” (A dissenting judge argued that it was “straight out of George Orwell’s novel 1984”.) The devices have been found on the cars of environmental activists and college students.

an abandoned GPS tracker, courtesy of John Snyder and Wired.com

(One federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., however, ruled that the tracking is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The Obama administration, no friend of civil liberties, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the decision.)

The bill, the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, would change this. It would also prevent companies, such as cell phone service providers, from sharing GPS data without prior consent. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Representative Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced it last month. (Wired has more.)

Here’s the contact information of our four NH members of Congress, to encourage them to support this legislation:
Kelly Ayotte
Jeanne Shaheen
Charlie Bass (western NH)
Frank Guinta (eastern NH)

PS: Wired has another article explaining how to check a car for a GPS tracker, should you feel so inclined.