revelarts
07-09-2013, 06:39 PM
Montana made history this spring after passing the first state law to prevent the government from spying on anyone in the state by tracking personal information stored in their electronic devices. The new law made Montana a pioneer in the age of electronic privacy rights by requiring state and local government entities to obtain a probable-cause warrant before remotely engaging personal electronic devices. House Bill 603, sponsored by Rep. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, was signed into law by Gov. Steve Bullock on May 6. “I didn’t even know it was the first one in the country,” Zolnikov said. “We just saw other legislation and thought, ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’” The law defines an electronic device as “a device that enables access to or use of an electronic communication service, remote computing service, or location information service.” That could mean cellphones, laptops, tablets and other electronic products. Although the bill’s passage marked a win for Zolnikov, he originally drafted a much more aggressive version of the bill – House Bill 400 – aimed at banning private companies and the federal government from accessing personal electronic data without a warrant. That bill was a nonstarter in the House Business and Labor Committee, so Zolnikov introduced House Bill 603, a more narrowly targeted version that was later amended to eliminate restrictions on the federal government. “This is very small compared to what we want to accomplish,” said Zolnikov, who acknowledged that any state law to limit the federal authority would get tied up in court because the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution states that federal law supersedes state law whenever the two conflict. During the past couple of months, federal government spying programs were exposed, leading to a public outcry for more comprehensive rights to privacy. Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, said Zolnikov recognized a need for limits on electronic spying before news surfaced that government contractor Edward Snowden had leaked information about several controversial domestic spying programs. “The NSA reports hadn’t even come out at that time,” Vincent said. Zolnikov also intended to restrict third parties such as cellphone companies from compiling and distributing personal information from customers who may consider their electronic data private. But the ban on third-party location tracking also bit the dust with House Bill 400.
Read more:
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_022211de-e81a-1... -
See more at:
http://xrepublic.tv/node/4304#sthash.cZwogMay.dpuf
Probable Cause before a search, what a novel idea. I hope it catches on.
Read more:
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_022211de-e81a-1... -
See more at:
http://xrepublic.tv/node/4304#sthash.cZwogMay.dpuf
Probable Cause before a search, what a novel idea. I hope it catches on.