Sponsors (4)
The bill strengthens protections against non‑consensual electronic location tracking and formalizes consent revocation, but it also risks broader enforcement and ambiguous rules that could expand surveillance or inadvertently criminalize caregiving and other safety-related monitoring.
People subjected to stalking or harassment gain clearer legal protection because the law explicitly covers non-consensual remote tracking devices, making it easier to pursue remedies.
Individuals being tracked gain a defined ability to revoke consent, allowing them to withdraw permission for electronic tracking and seek remedies if tracking continues.
Prosecutors, courts, and law enforcement get clearer statutory standards for charging and adjudicating cases involving electronic location tracking, reducing some legal uncertainty.
Privacy-concerned individuals may face increased surveillance and prosecutions because expanded prosecutorial authority could be interpreted broadly in ambiguous consent situations.
Courts and defendants could see more litigation and inconsistent outcomes because the bill leaves ambiguity about what counts as valid consent or revocation.
Parents, caregivers, and people with disabilities risk criminalization for well-intentioned monitoring because the law could be overbroad without clear safety exceptions for caregiving uses.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds definitions of “geotracking device” and “unauthorized” to the federal stalking statute and revises its introductory wording.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Emilia Strong Sykes · Last progress February 27, 2025
Establishes an official short title and updates the federal criminal stalking statute by adding definitions for “geotracking device” (an electronic or mechanical device that permits remote determination or tracking of a person’s position and movement) and for “unauthorized” (use of a geotracking device on a person without their consent or after they revoke consent). It also revises the statute’s introductory wording and inserts additional text into the statute (the exact inserted language is not included in the provided excerpt).