Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill Thursday to require...
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill Thursday to require more transparency and privacy restrictions for law enforcement surveillance of mobile devices (http://xrl.us/bnj3u2). The Wireless Surveillance Act aims to force law enforcement agencies to regularly disclose the nature and volume…
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of consumer mobile information requests they make; require narrowly targeted information requests; require signed, sworn statements from law enforcement agencies justifying the need for emergency access of mobile data; urge new FCC regulations to set limits on how long carriers can retain consumer information; and require a judge’s approval for law enforcement agencies to track geolocation information. “The startling number of requests made for the personal information of mobile phone users strongly suggests that clear, consistent rules should be established to protect the privacy of innocent people,” Markey said in an email. Markey recently published letters from nine wireless carriers that said they had received more than 1.3 million federal, state and local law enforcement requests for cellphone records in 2011 (CD July 10 p3). ACLU Legislative Counsel Christopher Calabrese endorsed the bill, which he said would bring “much needed transparency to a very murky area of surveillance law,” in an email Thursday. “We need more information and better controls for these requests -- not only about whom they are targeting but how that information is being stored. We need to ensure that law enforcement no longer has carte blanche to track innocent Americans.” J. Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, slammed Markey’s “delusional” legislative proposal, in an email sent Thursday. “The Wireless Surveillance Act of 2012 should be renamed the ‘Cripple Law Enforcement’s Ability to Protect Americans Act of 2012,'” he wrote. “Markey continues to misinterpret the volume of law enforcement requests as a sinister Big Brother theory. What Rep. Markey fails to realize is that criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and are taking advantage of all forms of e-communication. Law enforcement is no longer investigating suspected criminals that employ Flintstonian methods,” he said. “I again encourage Rep. Markey to follow due diligence by contacting some of the Inspector Generals (sic) to discuss any allegations of excessive or abusive inquiries made by law enforcement officers. He will ultimately find that his Big Brother theory is unfounded, and he in fact is advocating for criminals, not innocent Americans."