Al Franken (D-MN) is really assuming a take no prisoners’ stance in his new role as chairman of the Senate Sub Committee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. Over the past several months, Franken has hauled Apple and Google in for government hearings and pestered the megatechs with inquiry letters. Last week, the sophomore senator unveiled his latest offensive, the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011.

Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is cosponsoring the bill, which endeavors to establish strict permission standards for mobile location tracking devices and software. Franken’s and Blumethal’s legislation only applies to operations and corporations that collect data from more than 5,000 devices, and calls for increased data security measures, instantaneous data deletion mechanisms, and clear opt-in notices.

Back in the 1980s when video rentals were the hot new thing, Congress enacted the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPA), which, let’s be honest, essentially prevented anybody from checking whether or not you rented XXX videos. Franken’s bill is modeled after both the Video Protection and Electronic Communications Privacy acts.

A usual stalwart for government accountability, it’s interesting to note that Franken’s bill does not include standards for law enforcement entities. In other words, under Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011, governments and police forces will enjoy unlimited data-collection capabilities. The Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, however, put forth by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), is similar to the Franken-Blumenthal bill, but provisions are included for government and law enforcement agencies – they must meet wiretap request standards to access geolocation data.

When announcing the bill, Franken acknowledged that geolocation technology is an invaluable tool for emergency responders. That being said, in his announcement, Franken also referenced meetings with various Minnesota anti-domestic violence advocacy groups who educated the Senator on how abusers easily exploit navigation applications.

The two geolocation privacy bills were just announced; we’ll have to wait and see how much buzz they generate. But one this is for certain, Al Franken shows no signs of letting up on technology-related privacy legislation.

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Tags: Al Franken, Apple Privacy, geolocation, Google Privacy, Internet Privacy, Location Privacy Protection Act, mobile privacy