Lawmakers Propose Bill to Ban Law Enforcement Data Collection | 'The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act'

Urian B., Tech Times 21 April 2021, 09:04 pm

A certain bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers proposed a brand new bill on Wednesday April 21 that could ban the law enforcement as well as intelligence agencies from being able to buy user data from smartphones, social media, and even other digital sources coming from third-party data brokers. The bill is called "The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act."

The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act

The new act calls for the government agencies to really obtain a court order before they will be able to access personal information that is collected online. This includes geolocational information as well as electronic surveillance data. Sen Ron Wyden of Oregon stated in a press release that this bill would close legal "loopholes" which allow data brokers to easily sell American's personal information to intelligence agencies or law enforcements.

Wyden also added that doing business online does not directly amount to giving the government any form of permission to track the user's movement or go through the users' most personal data. Clearview AI, a certain facial-recognition software company, was directly named as a data collector whose gathered data should be protected from being sold to none other than the government due to certain privacy concerns.

Clearview AI Gathers Data Online

The New York Times also reported back in January 2020 that Clearview AI's system would include an extensive database consisting of over three billion images all taken from social media accounts as well as millions of other websites even without the user knowing. Although the particular software has been reportedly used to solve a number of crimes, along with certain data privacy concerns, it could still lead to the whole misidentification of suspects.

According to the story by ABC, Noan Ton-That, the current CEO of Clearview AI noted that the company actually only collects certain publicly available photos that are available on the open internet and are accessible from any computer in any part of the world. The statement noted that they have not yet seen the particular bill and that they plan to review it carefully to provide feedback if ever they get the opportunity to do so.

House's Version of the Act

The bill was introduced by none other than Wyden and Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky and is now being supported by 18 other members of the whole Senate. Paul noted in a press release that the Fourth Amendment's general protection against certain unreasonable search and other seizure ensures that the whole library of every single American will not be violated on the whims, or the financial transactions, of every single government officer.

The House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. known as Jerry Nadler of New York as well as House Committee Chair Rep. known as Zoe Lonfgren hailing from California also introduced the House's version of this particular act on April 21. The House Judiciary Committee will reportedly be examining the legislation over the course of the upcoming months according to Nadler.

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Written by Urian B.