The Protecting Everyone from Excessive Police Surveillance (PEEPS) Act
George Orwell’s vision of an all-seeing state isn’t fiction anymore. Modern surveillance technology enables the government to track your everyday movements, store your location history, and watch your life unfold in real time.
As the technology has expanded, so has its misuse. There have been reports of police using automatic license plate reader cameras to stalk ex-girlfriends, improperly sharing data with federal agencies, and providing bogus reasons for searching databases.
The Protecting Everyone from Excessive Police Surveillance (PEEPS) Act draws a constitutional line in the sand. It offers a balanced framework for legislators who want to ensure that law enforcement has the tools it needs to fight crime while preserving Fourth Amendment protections for the public. Key provisions include:
- Requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing an individual’s historical location information, unless an emergency makes it impractical to do so;
- Limiting the retention of historical location information to seven days;
- Restricting the conveyance of historical location information to third parties;
- Ensuring a record is created every time historical location information is accessed; and
- Mandating training for law enforcement officials who access historical location information.
Big Brother isn’t coming—it’s already here. The PEEPS Act safeguards Fourth Amendment rights while ensuring that powerful surveillance technology is subject to meaningful limits and accountability.