Barr Amendment to HR 5018, Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 2000.
Offered by Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA).
Re: Constitution Subcommittee.
Source: House Judiciary Committee.

Editor's Notes:
 • This amendment was offered and approved by unanimous voice vote at the September 14, 2000 meeting of the House Constitution Subcommittee.
 • Tech Law Journal converted a PDF version into HTML.
 • Several features were eliminated in the conversion, including the watermark, fonts, double spacing, line numbering, and paragraph indentations.

AMENDMENT TO H.R. 5018
OFFERED BY MR. BARR OF GEORGIA

Add at the end the following:

SEC. . GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO LOCATION INFORMATION.

(a) COURT ORDER REQUIRED.—Section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 2 of this Act, is further amended by adding at the end the following:

‘‘(i) DISCLOSURE OF LOCATION INFORMATION TO GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES.—

‘‘(1) DISCLOSURE UPON COURT ORDER.—Except as provided in paragraph (2), a provider of mobile electronic communication service shall provide to a governmental entity information generated by and disclosing the current physical location of a subscriber’s equipment only if the governmental entity obtains a court order issued upon a finding that there is probable cause to believe that—

‘‘(A) an individual is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a felony offense; and

‘‘(B) the location information sought to be obtained concerns the location of the person believed [begin page 2] to have committed, be committing, or be about to commit that offense or a victim of that offense.

‘‘(2) PERMITTED DISCLOSURES WITHOUT COURT ORDER.—A provider of mobile electronic communication service may provide information described in paragraph (1)—

‘‘(A) to a public safety answering point, emergency medical service provider or emergency dispatch provider, public safety, fire service or law enforcement official, or hospital emergency or trauma care facility, in order to respond to the user’s call for emergency services;

‘‘(B) to inform the user’s legal guardian or members of the user’s immediate family of the user’s location in an emergency situation that involves the risk of death or serious physical harm; or

‘‘(C) with the express consent of the subscriber or the user of the equipment concerned.

‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—The term ‘public safety answering point’ means a facility that has been designated to receive emergency calls and route them to emergency service personnel.’’.

[begin page 3]

(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Subsection (c)(1)(B) of section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘(b) of this section’’ and inserting ‘‘(b), or wireless location information covered by subsection (g)’’.