I am writing to urge you to contact Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) or Rep. Jason
Chaffetz (R-UT) to sign on as a co-sponsor and to pledge your support for the
Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, H.R. 2168 and S.1212, bills that
would protect sensitive location information data by requiring law enforcement
to get a warrant based on probable cause before accessing it and also regulate
the use of this information by business.  With location tracking cases rising
up all over the country this bill would provide a strong and clear national
standard for law enforcement.

The recent discovery that Apple iPhones had been secretly logging their users'
whereabouts is but one symptom of a widespread threat to privacy.  Whether it
is a visit to a psychiatrist, a liquor shop, a place of worship or a rifle
range, individuals' locations are tracked and available both in real time and
months or even years later.  Because of the sensitivity and invasiveness of
these records, law enforcement agents wishing to obtain them always should be
required to obtain a warrant and to show probable cause, no matter the
technology employed or the age of the records.

Unfortunately, the government frequently obtains location tracking details
without first obtaining a warrant and establishing probable cause.  Law
enforcement has obtained location information since at least the late 1990's
but more than a decade later there still is no uniform standard for when law
enforcement can access these data.  Whilst the Department of Justice has issued
recommendations setting out when prosecutors should show probable cause, United
States Attorneys' offices are apparently free to ignore these recommendations,
and some have chosen to do so.  Worse, the government seems to have engaged in
a coordinated effort to prevent the creation of a uniform standard by refusing
to seek appellate court decisions on the issue.  This legal manoeuvring has
prevented public debate and permitted the entrenchment of a practice
inconsistent with Constitutional principles.

Congress is the only branch of government that is well-positioned to ensure
that privacy is respected in the face of new mobile tracking technologies.  The
Executive has proven itself unwilling to show probable cause voluntarily.  The
courts are not well-equipped to do so because the government chooses not to
appeal decisions, frustrating development of the law.

I'll look forward to hearing your response on this critical issue.