Posted on 02/11/2010 11:08:16 AM PST by Free ThinkerNY
The Justice Department is poised this week to publicly defend a little-known law-enforcement practice that critics say may be the "sleeper" privacy issue of the 21st century: the collection of cell-phone "tracking" records that identify the physical locations where the phones have been.
It may come as a surprise to most of the owners of the country's 277 million cell phones, but their cell-phone company retains records of where their device has been at all times—either because the phones have tiny GPS devices embedded inside or because each phone call is routed through towers that can be used to pinpoint the phones' location to within areas as small as a few hundred feet.
Such location "logs" never show up on your monthly cell-phone bill. But federal court records filed over the past year indicate that federal prosecutors and the FBI have increasingly been obtaining such records in the course of criminal investigations—without any notice to the cell-phone customer or any showing of "probable cause" that tracking the physical location of the phone will turn up evidence of an actual crime.
"Most people don't understand they are carrying a tracking device in their pockets," says Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy group that has been trying to monitor the Justice Department's practice.
Much about the practice—including how many "tracking" records have been collected by the government—remains shrouded in secrecy. But in one court case in which the use of such records arose, a Philadelphia FBI agent named William Shute testified that he had obtained such records 150 times in recent years in order to track the location of federal fugitives.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.newsweek.com ...
‘This is definitely an article aimed at the tinfoil hat crowd.”
yeah cause we all know a govt would NEVER abuse their power.
they have been "tracking" you for years, even your cars have gps, toll tags, some credit cards, passports, laptops aircards, imbedded aircards, cell phones, pda's, etc. etc. all have the capabilities. Besides, look at all the cameras on the freeway/tollroad there for "weather and traffic" .... just talking out loud here...what other device(s) did i forget?
Heck some cars have black boxes in them that do the same thing. They’ve already been used in court cases against the cars owner.
One glaring problem with enemy of the state was that cage they went into. Totally isolated but still had network connectivity to the outside.
that and the govt workers were way too productive.
Use lead foil or build a small portable Faraday Cage around your phone.... :oP
sure ...
‘what other device(s) did i forget?”
that chip they insert via the anal probe.
Several years ago i received a letter from the county doing a traffic study. They noted I had been seen at a specific time at a specific place, and listed both. For a ‘traffic study’ they wanted to know where I was coming from and going to, and the purpose of the trip.
I know there are others who view themselves as being so important the government tracks them 24/7 but I'm not among them.
Don't even need aluminum foil.
They want to find me, they got me.
Data warehousing, data mining, distributed computing.
Analysis, synthesis and evaluation using huge databases.
That’s what one of the big things about health care was and is: the chip that’s smaller than a grain of rice, or, perhaps Hitachi’s ‘powder’ RFID.
You think about that and why you get the e-mails you do, the ads in your mailbox, the stray mailers, and the unsolicited coupons.
Cloud computing gone government.
Yes I’m paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Its good to know you trust rahm, bo, reid, the ATF, and the DOJ to do anything they want.
My biggest objection would the waste of taxpayer money and the mental abuse of one really bored cop. My life is that (pleasantly) boring.
But I’d still like to know the business reason for keeping these logs. Right now I’m getting an image of some Numerati (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618784608/?tag=yahhyd-20&hvadid=42576703511&ref=pd_sl_919kofcwu6_e) using it to develop marketing programs.
Blackberry. You can deny access to it.
That's to see where they originate from and where they are going.
A relatively simple model evaluates the data to see where a convenient location might be found.
This is based on the concepts behind the McDonald's technique for finding good places to do business.
Darned near everybody does this.
No, no one cares where you are going, or what you are doing, or where you live. The point is where were you last and where will you be next.
Biggest problem I recall finding back during the development phase was that a large percentage of the people had no idea where they were going next. They were just out kind of wandering around and stopped by the post office.
Knowledge of this ability would go a long way towards helping me create a solid alibi, should I decide to kill somebody.
It save the battery life as well so I do disable it and no, the GPS in my Blackberry is not turned on unless I want it on.
the business reason is so they can eventually send you marketing based on your location.
Outside a tire shop they’ll send you goodyear ads.
Outside a Victorias Secret they’ll send you Divorce lawyer ads.
The govt has shown they will abuse the information. This is the same govt that will jail a Navy Seal for giving a wanted terrorist a fat lip.
The war on drugs/crime/tight underwear is always the excuse for further infringement of our rights. What happens when they decide right wingers are potential terrorists. Oh wait they already do.
It’s probably because they have to buy frequencies from the fed govt. If the govt wants logs, they’ll get logs.
Ping
Journalistic analysis: By using terms such a “equivalent of a search warrant” and “obscure provisions” of a law, the writer is showing his bias in favor the defendants.
There are no “equivalents of a search warrant;” there are only legally authorized search warrants, which, by law, are not needed in these cases.
The only time any portion or provision of a law is “obscure” is when a lawyer doesn't want it applied to his client.
It's all very simple, and the people understand it if the judges and journalists do not: “If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime.”
If anyone listens to me they are in for very boring conversations.
“Where are you?
When are you coming home?
Drive careful and watch out for the other guy!
God bless you honey!
I love you!
How’s the kids? Give them our love!
Where’s Ron?
Did you get your money straightened out?
Did you talk to Ryder?
Kiss the girls for me.
How is everyone?
What? what? you’re breaking up.
Let’s talk later.
Okay.
Thank you sweetie!
Thank you for the flowers!
You’re sweet!
See you later.
Hugs!”
:-) Like I said...they will be very bored.
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