Electronic Privacy: State of Play in the 84th #TXLEGE

"Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked."
Psalm 82:4

Texas State Capitol -- The Texas Electronic privacy coalition, in conjunction with Texans for Accountable Government, held a legislative training tonight on legislation that would force police to obtain a warrant before obtaining cell phone geo-location data; Scott Henson of the Texas Criminal Justice coalition outlined the situation this session:



Highlights:

• Technology has outpaced statute.

• Last session, warrants for e-mail searches got passed.
• First in the nation.

• Overwhelming majority of abuses happen at the state and local level.

• Politics of this bill are extremely favorable right now.

• Praised elimination of 2/3rds rule.

• Federal Law = Swiss Cheese.

• Because it's a border state, Texas has a lot of the toughest cases.

• More optimistic about the Texas Senate: "By a long shot."

• "I'm hoping we successfully peel off the prosecutors."

Videos from the rest of the training here.