BILL NUMBER: S5923
SPONSOR: CLEARE
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to prohibiting
the creation of fake electronic communication service accounts and to
prohibiting the collection and use of individuals' account information
by law enforcement officers and other government entities
 
PURPOSE:
To prohibit police deception to gain access to social media accounts.
The measures would disallow police from tricking New Yorkers to hand
over private communications, whether through use of fake police social
media accounts or by coercing New Yorkers to provide login credentials
to social media accounts.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 sets the short title.
Section 2 amends the criminal procedure law to create a new article 702,
prohibiting law enforcement officers' creation and/or use of fake social
media accounts, prevents introduction of evidence obtained using such
accounts, and provides a private right of action.
Section 3 sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Given the SCOTUS draft decision on Roe v. Wade leaked in May 2022, the
need to protect our private information feels more immediate than ever.
Under current law, police can create fake accounts - impersonating
friends, family, and neighbors - and even mislead or coerce individuals
into handing over their account credentials. For pregnant people and
those seeking abortion care, this is of particular threat: fake social
media accounts provide law enforcement with a uniquely powerful tool for
tracking them.
Through these deceptive methods, law enforcement can impersonate friends
and family of those seeking abortion care as a tool to document private
posts about reproductive health. Even more disturbingly, law enforcement
officers can set up fake accounts impersonating abortion clinics and
other reproductive health providers, tricking users into revealing their
interest in abortion care. Even if abortion care remains protected in
New York State, such tools allow New York-based law enforcement officers
to obtain information on large numbers of abortion seekers that can then
be freely provided to anti-choice jurisdictions (and the Federal Govern-
ment) as part of interagency information sharing agreements.
The scope of these fake accounts leads to surveillance on more than just
individuals seeking health care - it threatens our rights to speak,
worship, associate, and assemble freely.
Internet attribution management technology, such as tools deployed by
the New York Police Department (NYPD), potentially allow a single offi-
cer to operate dozens of accounts, systematically - and discriminatorily
- targeting New Yorkers with invitations to share real-time records of
their lives with the police. If such tactics are combined with police
databases and artificial intelligence software, it further magnifies the
threat, allowing police to surveil nearly any New Yorker at any time.
Once New Yorkers purportedly consent to this tracking, police can freely
take information that otherwise would have been completely inaccessible
without a court order. This tactic has been used by hackers, cyber crim-
inals, foreign governments, and other bad actors to infiltrate Ameri-
cans' digital lives, and it should not be used by our own government as
well. Just as disturbingly, individual officers can abuse the tactic,
including for non-policing purposes.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Proposal.
 
COSTS TO STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None Anticipated.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediate.