Community | February 14, 2010 | 7 comments

Own a Cell-Phone? Be Prepared to be Tracked

source: http://www.care2.com/causes/civil-rights/blog/own-a-cell-phone-be-prepared-to-be-tracked/

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When you make a call on your cell phone, just how much privacy should you expect to enjoy? More importantly, does owning a cell phone give the government the right to track your whereabouts, even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime? According to the Department of Justice, the answer to the second question is quite clearly yes.

In a case pending before the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals the Justice Department argues that it need only show "reasonable grounds" to believe that cell phone records are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation" in order to access them. The issue illustrates a clash between federal criminal statutes, in this case the Stored Communications Act, and the Fourth Amendment. Privacy and civil rights advocates are closely watching the case as one that could set the standard for understanding the extent of individual privacy rights in the digital age.

The issue is not whether or not the government is entitled to cell phone location data, but rather, what legal showing the government must make before getting that information. In this case federal prosecutors had made a request for cell phone location data in connection with an ongoing investigation into a larger-scale narcotics trafficking and other violent crime. The location data was necessary, the government argued, because one of the targets of the investigation had used different vehicles and properties to conduct a variety of illegal activities making traditional physical surveillance difficult.

But the lower court had ruled that citizens maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in those records and use of their cell phone does not suspend that expectation. So, just like any other search, before the government can access that information it must meet the standard Fourth Amendment probable cause showing. The government disagreed and appealed the ruling, arguing that it need only meet the lower reasonableness standard.
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    Community
  2. tags:
    Privacy,  Cell Phones,  Justice Department,  Government Eavesdropping,  1 more
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7 comments // Own a Cell-Phone? Be Prepared to be Tracked

  • Ihatethemall
  • jjammedjr
  • jjammedjr
  • Ihatethemall
  • currentEcoNut85
  • 2helenahandbasket
  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • Yes but - a tracking system has hard financial, data acquisition / storage and man-hour limits. They have to have a reason to want to track you.

      That reason can be found in your data history. If you were downloading a huge stash of terrorist and demolition information, bomb-making - bank-robbing, etc, such that a data crawler would flag you - then they could have an investigative team on you and part of their case work might be tracking you from your cell phone. Especially right before your big caper.

      But otherwise, they aren't interested in you nor in spending money chasing you. You simply won't be offering them a juicy bust.

      But don't let that cave your chest in - you're still important.

    • 2 years ago
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