Rep. Hughes: Texas House Bill Fights to Protect Cell Phone Users Privacy

Service providers receive 1 million requests annually for your information. By Jim Cardle Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Cell phones send your location information constantly" says Greg Foster of the Electronic Frontier Foundations Austin Texas office. The details of your life your employer your hobbies your relationships your religion political meetings you attend all can & are gleaned from personal data stored by your phone company ... And police dont need a warrant to get it." In the state of Texas however lawmakers are considering legislation to limit the federal governments ability to spy on Americans cell phone data without a warrant.   Already and quickly the phrase expectation of privacy" has become more familiar as individuals and Privacy Rights groups start taking legal action against companies for tracking or identifying them both online and off. In the digital realm of social sharing what will become the indicators that someone is waiving any reasonable expectation of privacy? This is an interesting question that has no clear answer because neither Federal or State Legislators have even begun asking the question of citizens. Lawmakers in Texas dont like that notion and are asking officials in both the state House and Senate to approve separate bills that will bar law enforcement from obtaining cell tower location data without good reason. If passed the law enforcement will only be able to obtain information if there is probable cause to believe the records disclosing location information will provide evidence in a criminal investigation. Cult of data collection penetrating in many unexpected ways Wiretapping text messages and phone calls are another story but under current law its all too easy for police agencies to request and obtain certain cell information including real time location data that can let officers nearly pin-point the exact spot a person is located. When the Bill of Rights was written the framers kept all their personal information in their homes and no one had invented location tracking. This bill (House Bill 1608 by State Rep. Bryan Hughes in Texas) will apply our constitutional rights to the new ways we collect and store personal information" explains Heather Fazio of Texans for Accountable Government. Scott Henson the writer of the criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast adds

This bill ensures that government cant track your daily movements without a good reason." The EFFs Foster says it creates reasonable privacy protections for all Texans."

One of the Bills House Bill 1608 filed early in the Legislative Session by State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) and its identical companion Senate Bill 786 by Sen. Juan Chuy Hinojosa (D-McAllen) has attracted support from both sides of the aisle. The Texas Electronic Privacy Coalition and the states American Civil Liberties Union branch both endorse the legislation as well although it will need approval in both the House and Senate before it can land on the desk of Governor Rick Perry who unsuccessfully sought the Republican Partys nomination for president during last years election. Should Gov. Perry sign-on Gregory Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology says it could set the stage for federal lawmakers to follow suite.

What the states do on this issue will certainly influence what Congress does" Nojeim a senior counsel at the CDT tells Ars Technica. Its clear to me that because the location of a cell phone is mobile and because phones cross state lines routinely its probably that if the states start acting then Congress would need to enact a uniform rule."

A Supreme Court decision last year in the case of United States v. Jones ruled that law enforcement cannot track a suspect using a GPS signal without a warrant. Police agencies can still easily access other location data sent from cell towers however which gives near-perfect estimations of where a person is located at a specific time. Should the Texas bills be approved cell service providers will also need to provide to the public and government an annual transparency report on how law enforcement applies for sensitive information. HB 1608 to be heard next week for a 2nd Reading in House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee State Re. Bryan Hughes bill specifically requires police to get a warrant if they want to read the detailed location data held by cell phone companies. The House committee has also heard legislation to restrict drone surveillance which is also moving forward in Texas. Currently law enforcement officers across the United States dont need a warrant to obtain sensitive information sent over cellular networks and a recent analysis concluded that service providers receive over one million requests annually for this kind of information.