Sponsors (2)
Introduced July 29, 2025 by Ted Lieu · Last progress July 29, 2025
The bill increases privacy protections, transparency, and individual remedies for unlawful cell‑site simulator use, but at the cost of constraining law enforcement tools, adding compliance burdens, and creating potential operational uncertainty in urgent situations.
General public: Prohibits warrantless use of cell‑site simulators and excludes location data obtained without lawful process from most court proceedings, strengthening everyday privacy protections against indiscriminate location tracking.
Public safety users (9‑1‑1, suicide hotlines, poison control, relay services): Requires warrant applicants and courts to consider potential disruptions to emergency and relay services before authorizing simulator use, reducing risks that surveillance could interfere with urgent life‑saving communications.
Persons subjected to unlawful operations: Creates a private right of action allowing damages and attorney’s fees for people whose location was obtained unlawfully, giving individuals a real legal remedy and deterrence against misuse.
Law enforcement: Narrows investigative authority and adds procedural requirements (warrant showing, model testing, time limits) that could slow or limit timely tracking of suspects in active investigations.
Law enforcement and local governments acting in emergencies: The mix of emergency exceptions with later judicial review and required applications may create legal uncertainty and operational gaps for agencies responding to urgent situations.
Bystanders/non‑targets: Even with minimization and destruction rules, use of simulators (including under exceptions) can collect location data on non‑targets, and failures in implementation or retention rules could expose innocent people's location information.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Makes using a cell-site simulator in the U.S. a federal crime (with narrow exceptions), sets strict warrant rules, allows a limited emergency exception, and excludes improperly obtained data from court.
Makes it a federal crime to knowingly use a cell-site simulator in the United States, with limited exceptions for intelligence community activities and narrowly defined law enforcement uses. Creates new warrant standards and a short, renewable authorization period for law enforcement use, allows a narrow emergency exception, imposes fines up to $250,000 for violations, and generally bars evidence obtained in violation from being used in federal, state, or local proceedings.