{"id":15728,"date":"2017-01-15T22:50:16","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T05:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=15728"},"modified":"2017-01-15T22:52:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T05:52:21","slug":"lawmakers-weigh-privacy-issues-in-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/01\/lawmakers-weigh-privacy-issues-in-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers weigh privacy issues in the digital age"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rotunda\"<\/a>

Freddy Monares\/UM Legislative News Service<\/p>

The Capitol rotunda in Helena, epicenter of Montana politics this winter.<\/p><\/div>\n

Section 10<\/a> of the Montana Constitution states that \u201cthe right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as technology rapidly advances, finding the line between individual privacy and \u201ca compelling state interest\u201d is more complex than ever before. In response, the 2017 Montana Legislature will begin to make distinctions, wrestling with bills that deal with issues like cell phone data, GPS-enabled heart monitors and even “revenge porn.”<\/p>\n

The House Judiciary Committee heard HB 129<\/a> last Wednesday, which would outlaw so-called \u201crevenge porn\u201d\u2014explicit sexual images of a person that are put online without that person’s consent. Testimony on the bill, from both proponents and opponents, quickly centered on the notion of the victim\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ellie Hill-Smith, D-Missoula, said the bill would address images obtained through cell phone hacking, hidden cameras in bedrooms, recorded sexual assaults and more.<\/p>\n

Robin Turner, public policy and legal director for the Montana Coalition against Domestic Violence, said such images belong exclusively to the victim, and when their privacy is infringed on, it is the duty of the state to intervene.<\/p>\n

\"Zol\"<\/a>

Freddy Monares\/UM Legislative News Service<\/p>

Rep. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, is pushing three privacy-protection bills.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rep. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, said making state laws that ensure those privacy protections is part of his job as a legislator.<\/p>\n

Zolnikov is carrying three bills that would specifically limit law enforcement\u2019s ability to obtain electronic information without warrants.<\/p>\n

HB 147<\/a> would require state law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before accessing any electronic device. The bill would go further than a federal Supreme Court ruling that required warrants for accessing only cell phones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just looking for a heartbeat monitor \u2026 that has GPS location,\u201d Zolnikov said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a cell phone, but it can tell a lot of information about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

HB 148<\/a> requires warrants for the obtaining of any and all electronic communications\u2014namely, emails.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want a clear-cut standard saying, \u2018Yes, this information isn\u2019t in my physical possession, but there is this expectation that it is my information,\u2019\u201d Zolnikov said.<\/p>\n

HB 149<\/a>\u00a0would preemptively prevent law enforcement agencies from using license plate readers, a technology that has been implemented by police in many states but not in Montana. License plate readers photograph license plates at high speeds, and are typically mounted on police vehicles.<\/p>\n

Zolnikov\u2019s concerns about license plate readers center on the use of the data. He cited an American Civil Liberties Union finding<\/a> that only a \u201ctiny fraction\u201d of license plate scans were used for purposes like locating vehicles involved in criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

SK Rossi, director of advocacy and policy at the Montana ACLU, will be supporting Zolnikov\u2019s bill. Rossi said the organization has been supportive of Zolnikov\u2019s bills since he was a rookie legislator, and that he has a good grasp on the intricacies of digital privacy.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Rossi said Montanans champion their right to privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s deeply ingrained in our culture, and it\u2019s something we lose track of a little bit,\u201d Rossi said. \u201cMost people have little comprehension of just how much of our information is being accessed\u2014by corporations, for sure, but the government as well on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Rossi and Zolnikov said the fear of being listened in on prevents freedom of communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt chills that communication if privacy isn\u2019t protected, and, frankly, it chills free speech,\u201d Rossi said.<\/p>\n

Zolnikov carried similar bills last session, but none of them passed. Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, opposed one bill on license plate readers in 2015.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick, a lawyer, said while he believes in the right to privacy, he does not agree with Zolnikov\u2019s assertion that license plate readers present a privacy violation because they scan for information in a public space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t get to the point where we\u2019re regulating everything to death, so that police and law enforcement can\u2019t do their job,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement agencies have opposed similar legislation in the past.<\/p>\n

Mark Murphy, a lobbyist for the Montana County Attorneys Association and the Montana Association of Chiefs of Police, said while the organizations he represents do not have official stances on Zolnikov\u2019s bills, these tools are useful for law enforcement, and police and prosecutors typically do a good job of keeping information private.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose kinds of things are an assistance to law enforcement in the investigation of crime. But there\u2019s a legislative, ongoing debate about how much of that information we want to have available to law enforcement,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

Related story<\/strong>: Click here<\/a> for a weekly wrap-up of legislative news.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Michael Siebert is a reporter with the UM Community News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism and the Montana Newspaper Association.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section 10 of the Montana Constitution states that \u201cthe right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.\u201d But as technology rapidly advances, finding the line between individual privacy and \u201ca compelling state interest\u201d is more complex than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":15729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[5379,5378,5380,1122],"class_list":["post-15728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-revenge-porn","tag-daniel-zolnikon","tag-ellie-hill-smith","tag-montana-legislature","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}