Privacy watchdogs call for redefinition of checks and balances on law enforcement
That your mobile phone often has a better idea of where you are than you do may be a comfort in some situations, but that increasingly common and precise capability has raised concerns among privacy advocates.
From a Forbes story this morning:
On Thursday the House Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing to discuss the murky question of law enforcement’s right to monitor the location of mobile phones, long left unanswered by the outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. As cell phones gain new methods of sensing users’ locations — such as GPS — faster than courts are willing to create standards, some of the hearing’s witnesses will argue that the law needs an update.
“Technology changes too quickly,” says Marc Zwillinger, a tech and business-focused partner at law firm Zwillinger Genetski LLP who plans to testify at the hearing. “You can’t wait for courts to resolve this issue. If there’s a privacy interest in not having your location tracked, then Congress needs to act.”
Left to its own devices, so to speak, law enforcement has in some cases played fast and loose with existing limitations on its ability to access tracking capabilities and data – limitations that are already minimal.
Congress can and should find the means to strike a better balance between privacy expectations and legitimate law enforcement needs.
