HB1751, titled the Stop Electronic Stalking Act of 2025, would amend the federal stalking statute in 18 U.S.C. § 2261A to expressly include stalking carried out through an unauthorized geotracking device. The bill defines a geotracking device as any electronic or mechanical device that allows a person to remotely determine or track another person’s location or movement, and it defines “unauthorized” to mean the tracked person did not consent or has revoked consent.
In practical terms, the bill would make it a federal offense to use hidden or nonconsensual location-tracking technology as part of stalking conduct, placing such conduct on the same footing as other stalking methods already covered by the statute. The measure is aimed at modern surveillance tools such as GPS trackers, phone-based tracking, and similar devices used without permission to monitor a person’s movements.
Impact
The bill would expand federal criminal law by amending the stalking provisions in title 18 to explicitly cover unauthorized geotracking. This would give federal prosecutors a clearer statutory basis to charge stalking cases involving location-tracking technology and could affect individuals, domestic violence and stalking cases, and technology-enabled harassment investigations. It would not create a new standalone offense so much as broaden the conduct covered under existing federal stalking law.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes, the available record suggests generally supportive intent and a straightforward public-safety framing. The bill’s title and sponsor list indicate a focus on combating electronic stalking and protecting victims from nonconsensual tracking. No contrary views are documented in the provided materials.
Contention
No committee transcripts or vote records are provided, so no specific objections are documented. Potential areas of contention, if raised in future debate, could include how broadly “geotracking device” is defined, whether the federal amendment overlaps with state stalking or privacy laws, and how consent or revoked consent would be proven in practice. The bill appears to be aimed at closing a technology-related gap in existing stalking law rather than changing the underlying elements of stalking more broadly.