ACLU Testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Hearing on ‘Geolocation Technology and Privacy’
This written testimony was delivered by ACLU Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s March 2, 2016 hearing on “Geolocation Technology and Privacy.” The testimony urges Congress to pass comprehensive legislation, beginning with the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, which requires law enforcement officials to obtain a probable cause warrant to obtain real-time or historical location information unless narrow exceptions apply. It also urges Congress to ensure that, until the legislation is passed, DOJ adopts a policy requiring a probable cause warrant before law enforcement can collect such information. Lastly, the testimony calls for the committee to demand that the DOJ publicly release unredacted copies of the memoranda that provide the Department’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Jones and all existing guidance governing the collection of location information.