Sec. 1. Short title; findings
362 words·~2 min read·
/bill/118/hr/6605/ih/section-1·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
This Act may be cited as the or the Stop Terrorism and Illicit Finance Location Exploitation Act of 2023 . STIFLE Act of 2023 The Congress finds the following: Financial sanctions are a primary national security tool for the United States. Financial technology has created both new beneficial financial innovations and emerging illicit finance risks, including the evasion of sanctions. A financial technology platform must be able to determine the precise location of an active user of the platform to effectively implement location-based access controls for compliance with— sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control; obligations imposed by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the Bank Secrecy Act, and regulations associated with such Acts; and any other regulatory obligation.
Financial technology platforms generally use an Internet Protocol (in this Act referred to as IP ) address as the primary or sole indicator of their users’ precise location. IP addresses were first created in 1974 and standardized in 1983 as unique identification numbers attributed to devices on an interconnected computer network and are the foundation of the modern internet. IP addresses are assigned by Internet Service Providers (in this Act referred to as ISPs ) and have become a less accurate determinant of precise location as a result of the proliferation of mobile devices, dynamic IP addresses, globalized content delivery networks, and other innovations.
IP addresses can be manipulated through the use of Virtual Private Networks (in this Act referred to as VPNs ), proxy servers, anonymizing darknet website browsers, and other location obfuscation techniques for the purpose of— illicit finance; evading detection under existing sanctions; and evading requirements set forth in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and the Bank Secrecy Act. Global System for Mobiles triangulation, Wi-Fi triangulation, and GPS data provide substantially more accurate location information than IP addresses, but are individually susceptible to similar manipulation through device tampering, freely available downloadable software, and other obfuscation techniques.
Technology that combines enhanced data analytics with aggregated authentic sources of location data is widely used to effectively ensure compliance with United States sanctions, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the Bank Secrecy Act, and other statutory and regulatory requirements.