COLUMBIA, SC–Bill H4791 was passed in the South Carlina House with overwhelming support last week, with 89 votes for and only 17 against. The bipartisan bill states in part that, “A governmental entity may not obtain geolocation information revealing the past, present, or future location of an electronic device” without a warrant, permission from the owner, or very limited emergency situations.
While the bill still has to be passed by the state senate, its impact will extend to the federal government. The NSA’s expansive warrantless tapping gathers “5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.” That information is usually shared with state and local law enforcement through a clandestine DEA unit known as the Special Operations Division (SOD).
The illegally gathered information is used for criminal prosecutions against Americans, and has no relevance to national security (supposedly the whole basis of the NSA’s existence). With H4791, South Carolina is standing up to this practice, and other states will likely follow suit at the demand of their constituents.
[about_faith]
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