Florida is set to become the first state to make device stalking a felony.
Republican lawmakers proposed a new bill that would hand down up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine to offenders caught using tracking systems like Apple’s AirTags and spyware to follow victims without their consent.
Device stalking is currently a second degree misdemeanor, which sees a sentence of up to 60 days in jail, six months probation and a fine of $500.
The Florida Judiciary Committee passed the bill on Monday in a 9-0 vote, but it still needs to go through the Senate Rules Committee before making its way to the House and Senate.
If approved, Governor Ron DeSantis could sign it into law on October 1.
A Florida bill will make device tracking without consent a third-degree felony and perpetrators will face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine
The bill was proposed by Representative Tobin Overdorf and Senator John Martin, who were urged to introduce the legislation by police departments.
Martin told South Florida Sun Sentinel that the law needs to be changed because ‘it’s so much easier now to track individuals through AirTags, and apps and other devices.’
He added that the rising availability of trackers means the technology ‘could go completely undetected unless you’re trained or skilled to find those tracking devices.’
The bill states that there are exceptions allowing certain individuals to track others without their consent including law enforcement, a parent or legal guardian of a minor, a caregiver to an elderly or disabled person and the owner or lessee of a motor vehicle.
‘Some applications have legitimate uses,’ the Florida Senate wrote in an analysis of the bill.
However, it added that ‘other applications are developed and marketed as surveillance applications, commonly targeting potential customers interested in using the technology to track the movements and communication of another without consent.’
Four types of technology make it possible to track people including global position satellite systems, Wi-Fi positioning, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Ultra-Wideband Technology, the analysis said.
Stalking remains a serious issue, particularly for those who are victims of domestic violence, with trackers leading to harmful behavior and in some cases, death.
Apple added a feature to its AirTag devices to alert people if they’re being unknowingly tracked
In 2022, a woman used an Apple AirTag to track her boyfriend to a bar where she brutally murdered him by running over him with her car.
A Texas man was arrested in December last year for placing a tracking device in the trunk and lining of his estranged wife’s vehicle.
And over the summer, a man shot and killed his girlfriend for removing the Apple AirTag he placed in her car without her knowledge.
Richard Ansara, a South Florida-based criminal defense attorney who represents people accused of domestic violence, told Techxplore: ‘People do desperate things in relationships, specifically when they are trying to determine whether infidelity is occurring.
‘Some may decide to drop an AirTag in a spouse’s vehicle and or clothing to try to get to the bottom of what is happening in their relationships. Is this correct behavior? No.’
Apple rolled out an update to its AirTag device to let people know if they’re being tracked without their consent and ‘to discourage people from trying to track you without your knowledge,’ the company said on its site.
A class-action lawsuit filed against the company last year claimed Apple isn’t doing enough to protect people from unwanted tracking, saying people are falling victim to stalkers and would-be killers using AirTags.
‘I think there needs to be a little bit more information that is disseminated to the potential purchaser so that he or she understands that potentially there is a criminal and or civil liability that exposes them if, in fact, it is misused,’ Attorney Stuart Kaplan told CBS12 News.
A 2022 report by the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that 7.5 million people are stalked each year, ‘yet the crime is seldom charged or prosecuted.’
Dailymail.com has reached out to Rep. Overdorf and Sen. Martin for comment.
