Congress Considers Privacy Issues
in advance of Summer Recess
Colleagues:
As Congress prepares to leave on its summer recess, it has
become active on issues of interest to NCISS members. Last night
the House of Representatives passed HR 5662, an anti-stalking
bill, ''Simplifying The Ambiguous Law, Keeping Everyone Reliably
Safe Act of 2010'' or the ''STALKERS Act of 2010''. The bill was
introduced earlier this month and went directly to the floor
without committee consideration. Yesterday, S 3651, a similar
bill, was introduced in the Senate. It may be that Congress
acted quickly because stalking victim Erin Andrews, of ESPN, was
in town to promote the legislation. The NCISS Legislative
Committee reviewed the bill and determined that "intent"
language in the legislation would preserve the right of
investigators to conduct lawful surveillance. Here is the
operative portion of the bill:
(a) In General.--Section 2261A of title 18, United States Code,
is amended to read as follows:``§2261A. Stalking
``(a) Whoever, with intent to kill, physically injure, harass,
or intimidate a person, or place under surveillance with the
intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or intimidate a
person, travels in interstate or foreign commerce or within the
special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United
States, or enters or leaves Indian country, and in the course
of, or as a result of, such travel--
``(1) causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious
emotional distress to a person other than the person engaging in
the conduct; or
``(2) engages in conduct that would be reasonably expected to
cause the other person serious emotional distress;
shall be punished as provided in subsection (c).
``(b) Whoever, with intent to kill, physically injure, harass,
or intimidate a person, engages in a course of conduct in or
substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce that--
``(1) causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious
emotional distress to a person other than the person engaging in
the conduct; or
``(2) occurs in circumstances where the conduct would be
reasonably expected to cause the other person serious emotional
distress;
shall be punished as provided in subsection (c).
``(c) The punishment for an offense under this section is the
same as that for an offense under section 2261, except that--
``(1) if the offense involves conduct in violation of a
protection order; and
``(2) if the victim of the offense is under the age of 18 years
or over the age of 65 years, the offender has reached the age of
18 years at the time the offense was committed, and the offender
knew or should have known that the victim was under the age of
18 years or over the age of 65 years;
the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed is
increased by 5 years over the term of imprisonment otherwise
provided for that offense in section 2261.''
Senate considers online privacy
Also, during Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation on the topic of online
privacy, Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the Federal Trade
Commission, said that the Commission would be issuing a privacy
report in the Fall. Although it appears it will largely relate
to online advertising, the Chairman said the Commission is
considering how to deal with data brokers who aggregate and sell
personal information. The report will in large part be based on
the series of roundtables held by the FTC last year, which I and
several other NCISS members participated.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) ,a member of the Senate Commerce
Committee, announced he will be introducing similar legislation.
Tuesday's hearing follows one held last week in the House Energy
and Commerce Committee to discuss HR 5777, the "Best Practices
Act", which was recently introduced by Representative Bobby Rush
(D-IL). NCISS is concerned that although that bill is aimed
largely at online advertising, its limitation on collecting
personal information would affect private investigators.
This issue is garnering tremendous momentum in Congress. In fact
an additional hearing on the topic is scheduled for today in the
House Judiciary Committee. The NCISS Legislative Committee will
stay on top of the issue and communicate our concerns to
legislative staff. Links to Tuesday's testimony will be posted
on the NCISS website.
Keeping the profession informed,
Jimmie Mesis, LPI
NCISS Legislative Chairman
jim@nciss.orgNCISS
7501 Sparrows Point Blvd.
Baltimore, Maryland 21219-1927
(800) 445-8408 . Fax: (410) 388-9746
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