On January 30, 2018, the Brennan Center’s Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Senior Counsel to the Liberty and National Security Program, testified before the Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee in support of H.B. 314, which would institute clear guidelines for law enforcement agencies to follow in seeking a warrant for use of cell site simulators.
Cell site simulators enable police to mimic a cell phone tower, tricking nearby phones into connecting with the simulator instead of a real tower. The information received when phones connect to the simulator can generate extremely precise location information. The detailed warrant requirement, procedures for transparency, and protections for non-target information outlined in H.B. 314 would shore up critical privacy protections while providing law enforcement with a clear framework to use in deploying these tools.
Read the testimony below:
Testimony Maryland Hearing Stingray 01302018 by The Brennan Center for Justice on Scribd