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Privacy Bill Advances After Senators Clarify Search-and-Rescue Exemption for Cell "Pinging"
Summary
Senators advanced House Bill 128 to third reading after agreeing the bill will prohibit bulk collection of device-location data while preserving judicially recognized emergency exceptions such as search-and-rescue; sponsors said the Department of Public Safety requested language to protect emergency operations.
House Bill 128, which would restrict bulk collection of electronic-device location data and require judicial authorization for most probes, advanced on the Senate floor after sponsors and affected agencies agreed language preserves emergency exceptions such as search-and-rescue.
Senator Madsen, sponsor of the bill, told colleagues the measure codifies best practices around warrants and limits indiscriminate collection by vehicle-mounted devices that can sweep location metadata broadly. He described the technology and the policy goal: "This technology... allows for vehicle-mounted roving, mobile and follow an individual or scan a particular area, all of the electronic information, the calls and texts and so forth that are being broadcast in that general area." The bill would prohibit retention of bulk data unrelated to an authorized investigation.
Senator Dan Valentine and other senators asked whether the bill would impede emergency departments that use limited cell "pinging" to find critically missing people. Senator Madsen and the sponsor said the language includes judicially recognized exceptions and was drafted with input from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to ensure rapid, life-saving uses remain possible. "They believe that language covers their concern," the sponsor said on the floor.
Senators requested confirmation from DPS and moved the bill to third reading to allow time for final technical checks and public review. The floor debate repeatedly emphasized two goals: to prevent bulk surveillance of citizens— location data while not hamstringing urgent public-safety operations.
If enacted, the bill would require law enforcement to obtain particularized authority for most device-location requests, limit retention of data not responsive to that authority, and require notice to affected parties when feasible. Implementation will require administrative policies and possible training for dispatch centers and search-and-rescue units to coordinate rapid emergency exceptions with judicial authorizations where appropriate.
