By Alexander Anthony
The Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act (Also known as the GPS Act) was a bill introduced into U.S. Congress in 2011, that aimed to limit government surveillance using geolocation tools or data. Particularly against GPS signals from mobile devices. This bill was sponsored by Democratic senator Ron Wyden and Republican representative Jason Chaffetz. The bill was created after numerous incidents where law enforcement would unknowingly place GPS devices, or access GPS tools to track innocent civilians or suspects. The legal framework proposed would seek to establish a process where Government agencies, commercial entities, and private citizens have transparent rules for how and when geolocation data can be accessed and used. For government agencies, this means obtaining a warrant from a judge anytime they want to access Geolocation data or tools, the same way they need a warrant for wiretaps, physical searches and much more. For private companies and entities, this means it would prevent the sharing of GPS data to others without the customers permission.This bill was proposed after the U.S. government passed the Patriot Act. A highly controversial bill that
allows Internet service providers to disclose customer records voluntarily to the government in emergencies involving an immediate risk of death or serious physical injury and permits victims of hacking crimes to request law enforcement assistance in monitoring trespassers on their computers. The Patriot Act followed the devastating 9/11 attack, and this was the governments response (among other things) to add in the catching of dangerous criminals and terrorists before another attack like that could ever occur. The bill has been widely criticiszed for being abused to spy on citizens. I believe that the Patriot Act should be rehashed as well and bringing in the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act into effect as soon as possible.