The Snitch in Your Pocket

[IDemo]

Law enforcement is tracking Americans' cell phones in real time—without the benefit of a warrant.


By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Published Feb 19, 2010
From the magazine issue dated Mar 1, 2010

Amid all the furor over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program a few years ago, a mini-revolt was brewing over another type of federal snooping that was getting no public attention at all. Federal prosecutors were seeking what seemed to be unusually sensitive records: internal data from telecommunications companies that showed the locations of their customers' cell phones—sometimes in real time, sometimes after the fact. The prosecutors said they needed the records to trace the movements of suspected drug traffickers, human smugglers, even corrupt public officials. But many federal magistrates—whose job is to sign off on search warrants and handle other routine court duties—were spooked by the requests. Some in New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas balked. Prosecutors "were using the cell phone as a surreptitious tracking device," said Stephen W. Smith, a federal magistrate in Houston. "And I started asking the U.S. Attorney's Office, 'What is the legal authority for this? What is the legal standard for getting this information?' "

Those questions are now at the core of a constitutional clash between President Obama's Justice Department and civil libertarians alarmed by what they see as the government's relentless intrusion into the private lives of citizens. There are numerous other fronts in the privacy wars—about the content of e-mails, for instance, and access to bank records and credit-card transactions. The Feds now can quietly get all that information. But cell-phone tracking is among the more unsettling forms of government surveillance, conjuring up Orwellian images of Big Brother secretly following your movements through the small device in your pocket.

How many of the owners of the country's 277 million cell phones even know that companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint can track their devices in real time? Most "don't have a clue," says privacy advocate James X. Dempsey. The tracking is possible because either the phones have tiny GPS units inside or each phone call is routed through towers that can be used to pinpoint a phone's location to areas as small as a city block. This capability to trace ever more precise cell-phone locations has been spurred by a Federal Communications Commission rule designed to help police and other emergency officers during 911 calls. But the FBI and other law-enforcement outfits have been obtaining more and more records of cell-phone locations—without notifying the targets or getting judicial warrants establishing "probable cause," according to law-enforcement officials, court records, and telecommunication executives. (The Justice Department draws a distinction between cell-tower data and GPS information, according to a spokeswoman, and will often get warrants for the latter.)

The Justice Department doesn't keep statistics on requests for cell-phone data, according to the spokeswoman. So it's hard to gauge just how often these records are retrieved. But Al Gidari, a telecommunications lawyer who represents several wireless providers, tells NEWSWEEK that the companies are now getting "thousands of these requests per month," and the amount has grown "exponentially" over the past few years. Sprint Nextel has even set up a dedicated Web site so that law-enforcement agents can access the records from their desks—a fact divulged by the company's "manager of electronic surveillance" at a private Washington security conference last October. "The tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement," said the Sprint executive, according to a tape made by a privacy activist who sneaked into the event. (A Sprint spokesman acknowledged the company has created the Web "portal" but says that law-enforcement agents must be "authenticated" before they are given passwords to log on, and even then still must provide valid court orders for all non-emergency requests.)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/233916

[MadHound]

1. This has been going on for at least the past five years

It has been marketed as "traffic control" but it effectively allows a private corporation, hooked into the police traffic system, to monitor the where abouts of everybody with an active cellphone. This started out in large cities and has now trickled down to small cities and will soon reach everywhere. Meanwhile on older phones you could drop out by simply turning your phone off, newer models can now act as a beacon whether your phone is active or not. The only way to prevent this is to take out the battery.

This is simply another way that Americans are purchasing their own chains. The same applies with OnStar and cars with computing trackers. We are quickly purchasing our way to becoming the most surveiled and tracked society on the planet.

[hlthe2b]

3. I have always been employed in work that requires 24/7 access

and that has been by pager, then cell phone with me at all times. I think most recognize that employers have the right to know where you are when officially on the clock, but this has now been extended with technology to employers knowing where you are at all times.... I don't have anything to hide, but I do appreciate my privacy. Our society is really changing--and not for the better.

[surrealAmerican]

27. Employers, however, have no right to know ...

... where their employees are when they are not "on the clock".

[hlthe2b]

30. Software exists for employers to track blackberries & other cells

that they provide to employees. If you are required to be available 24/7, then they can know where you are at all times. Right or wrong, this is the case.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. One of our principals was fired

She called in sick using her district cell phone. They tracked the call to Vegas. She got canned.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Would that be one of those above reproach school officials too busy for shenanigans?

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. No it would be a principal who went to Vegas for the weekend 3 years ago

and called in sick thinking she could get away with it.

[ieoeja]

35. Have you never gotten sick while out of town?

I once called in sick because I was sick THE LAST DAY of my vacation. I spent what would have been my first day back at work traveling home since I could not travel the day before.

[elehhhhna]

2. Finally. A tactic for rejuventating the dying land-line phone business.

at&t says "THANKS!"

[lunatica]

4. As a science fiction fan I saw this coming decades ago

It doesn't surprise me at all. The movie 'Body of Lies' has as it's premise the use of satellite technology to track every single person in the world in real time no matter how remotely 'off the grid' they may appear to be. Whether this ability is presently true or not is unimportant. If it can be done with existing technology it will be done. If better technology is needed, that will also be done. Presently I have seen my house from Google satellite photos which is public knowledge. What are they seeing which is done without public knowledge? I'd say plenty.

[LWolf]

5. We need an amendment guaranteeing the right to privacy. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. .

:evilgrin:

[insanity]

34. We have at least two

The 9th and the 14th contain an inherent right of privacy. This was the Court's decision in Girswold v. Connecticut. Roe was decided on the same logic.

[LWolf]

39. It either needs to be spelled out concretely,

or what is already on the books needs to be enforced more broadly and more energetically.

[agent46]

6. And a flick of the switch

by some soulless bureaucrat can now activate the cell phone mic for 24/7 recorded surveillance. Now that rule of law is optional for those with money and influence, you can be susceptible to intimidation and harassment. I sometimes wonder if blackmail and extortion isn't one of the reasons for the spineless wonders of congress.

[dysfunctional press]

7. best solution: don't carry a cell phone.

i don't.

i keep one in my car, turned off until i need want to use it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Some employers require them

My son has to carry his 24/7.

[dysfunctional press]

22. too bad for him.

if/when the economy recovers, he should consider finding a different employer.

i'd have never taken a job with that kind of requirement in the first place.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. He doesn't mind at all

They've never once called him when he was not at work.

[dysfunctional press]

33. different strokes for different folks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. In this economic climate he's glad to have a job

[malakai2]

8. Like a telescreen

Except people like to have them.

[enlightenment]

9. I've been calling cell phones the human equivalent of a

tracking collar for years.

I'm not entirely certain they even have to be 'on' in order to track them, do they?

[peace frog]

10. I keep my cell phone off most of the time

Turn it on only when I need to use it. When people complain they can't reach me I say leave me a voicemail, maybe I'll get back to you. ;)

Time to dust off that old hard-wire wall phone and re-install it.

[pipi_k]

11. Me too, but only because

I can't get cell service where I live. Although that's about to change soon (supposedly) when the town gets three cell towers.

Even then, I keep my phone in a little case in my purse, which is in another part of the house.

In any event, someone listening in on my conversations would probably fall asleep from boredom as I talk with my kids about their troubles, and/or chat with the grandkids.



I gave up planning revolutions, bank heists, and malicious mischief decades ago.

:7

[agent46]

12. Revolutions, bank heists, and malicious mischief

Damn! I'm just gettin' started.

:party:

[pipi_k]

28. I proudly hand over the torch to you...

:7

[agent46]

40. You won't be sorry

:evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. And I use mine to read DU

:)

[TransitJohn]

21. Unless you physically remove the battery

they can turn it on and listen to you even if you have it powered off.

[zorahopkins]

18. This Is Why I Keep My Cell Phone....

This is one of the reasons I keep my cell phone turned OFF until I actually need to use it.

I don't have it on while I am driving (I don't call anyone while I drive, and I would not answer the phone if someone tried to call me while I was driving).

[HippieCowgirl]

19. Make your pockets RFID-unfriendly

http://www.rfid-weblog.com/50226711/building_a_faraday_cage_in_clothing_to_shield_rfid_tags.php

won't help with cell-phones, but all sorts of things have RFID in them now.

[TransitJohn]

20. If you're not doing anything wrong, you shouldn't have anything to hide.

:sarcasm:

[blindpig]

25. I've always called those things an 'electronic ball & chain'

Oh boy, right again.

Ya might as well get 'chipped'.

[babydollhead]

26. some clothes have tracking devices sewn in.

[pipi_k]

29. Oh, the places my underpants have been....

:7

[Echo In Light]

31. _

[SlingBlade]

32. CHANGE

[blindpig]

37. There is a easy way around this...

Throw the motherfucker out, step on it with extreme prejudice.

Civilization will survive.

[upi402]

38. Drug dealers will just turn them off, or not bring cell phones

I thought they could only tell which cell, or area, you were in. So with no specific location they'd have no hard evidence for court or even for a capture.

[Egnever]

41. Boooga booga!