Two Democratic cosponsors have signed on to a House Republican bill that would end warrantless surveillance by the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies.
Ranking House Judiciary Committee member John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. are cosponsoring the Cell-Site Simulator Act proposed on Monday by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. The bill would force state and federal agencies to seek a warrant before using devices often referred to as “Stingrays” that pose as cell phone towers in order to capture cellular data.
“The abuse of Stingrays and other cell-site simulators by individuals, including law enforcement, could enable gross violations of privacy,” Chaffetz said in a statement. “The fact that law enforcement agencies, and non-law enforcement agencies such as the IRS, have invested in these devices raises serious questions about who is using this technology and why. These questions demonstrate the need for strict guidelines that carry the weight of the law.”
The legislation would codify guidelines recently promulgated by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security that require their agents to seek warrants before using the devices, which sweep up cellular data from innocent bystanders in addition to that of suspects.
Though agencies have long maintained the devices do not pick up the content of communications, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union last week affirmed that they do have the ability. “It may… be possible to flash the firmware of a cell phone so that you can intercept conversations using a suspect’s cell phone as the bug,” a 2008 guidance issued by the DOJ stated. “You don’t even have to have possession to modify it; the ‘firmware’ is modified wirelessly.”
However, the memo notes, “it sounds like something that you would not want to do without with checking with OEO [DOJ’s Office of Enforcement Operations] first.”
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted last week that his agency has used the devices in its investigations, prompting both the House Oversight Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee to launch probes into the matter.
