Feds push for tracking cell phones without warrants.

[SharksBreath]

February 11, 2010 4:00 AM PST
by Declan McCullagh

The Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.

Those claims have alarmed the ACLU and other civil liberties groups, which have opposed the Justice Department's request and plan to tell the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Americans' privacy deserves more protection and judicial oversight than what the administration has proposed.

Hmm. Interesting. So what do they mean when they say.

No reasonable expectation of privacy'


What exactly is "Our right to privacy."


No reasonable expectation of privacy'
In the case that's before the Third Circuit on Friday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, said it needed historical (meaning stored, not future) phone location information because a set of suspects "use their wireless telephones to arrange meetings and transactions in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan in Pennsylvania denied the Justice Department's attempt to obtain stored location data without a search warrant; prosecutors had invoked a different legal procedure. Lenihan's ruling, in effect, would require police to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause--a more privacy-protective standard.

You can read the entire article here.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html

[BunkerHill24]

1. Not sure, but Duer had something about this being continuation

of *bush admin. and not something the Obama's doing. I'll have to look it up.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LWolf]

3. I'd like a constitutional amendment

guaranteeing our right to privacy.

But that's just me.

[Michigan-Arizona]

4. No not just you, I'd like it to & many others would I hope n/t

[GiveMeFreedom]

5. fuck...

I just dropped my cell phone service because I can't pay them. Now I will have to wear a bull's eye cap, so they can spot me from outer space. :silly: :sarcasm:

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

6. Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" anywhere anymore.

so I assume It is all fair game now.

[jberryhill]

7. Landline locations, of course, were always known

What they are arguing is that historically the locations of all telephones were known.

The cell phone carriers, of course, have to know where the phones are (at least approximately). So, the question under Mapp v. Ohio is, since you know that at least one third party knows where your phone is, do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in that information.

[ck4829]

8. K&R

[MadHound]

9. Hate to tell you this, but this is already happening

It has been going on for at least five years now. Private corporations have been tracking cell phones for "traffic control" purposes, first in big cities, then in smaller metro areas, now reaching out to the rural areas.

And of course since this is for "traffic control", the information is shared with police already.

Now then, initially you could avoid this by turning your cell phone off. But newer phones now have the capability to act as a tracking beacon, even while they are off. Your only option is to either not carry a phone or to take the battery out.

The sad thing about all of this is that we the people are paying for our own shackles. We buy cell phones and On Star, and those fine home security systems that have sensors inside the home, all the better to track what you do inside your own four walls.

[gulfcoastliberal]

10. Seems like one of the unabomber's assertions in his manifesto is right: the more technology develops

as a whole continually narrows our sphere of freedom.

http://cyber.eserver.org/unabom.txt