Interesting People mailing list archives
E-tracking through your cell phone
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 13:36:00 -0500
E-tracking through your cell phone By Declan McCullaghhttp://news.com.com/E-tracking+through+your+cell+phone/ 2010-1039_3-6038468.h
tml Story last modified Mon Feb 13 06:24:49 PST 2006 You may already know this, but your cell phone happens to be a miniature tracking device that can be used to monitor your location from afar.There are times when knowing your exact location is useful, of course. It
would be handy for a phone to help you find a gas station in a pinch, or bleep when you're about to take the wrong highway exit.But the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have seized on the ability to locate a cellular customer and are using it to track Americans' whereabouts
surreptitiously--even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.A pair of court decisions in the last few weeks shows that judges are split on whether this is legal. One federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin on Jan. 17 ruled it was unlawful, but another nine days later in Louisiana decided
that it was perfectly OK.This is an unfortunate outcome, not least because it shows that some judges are reluctant to hold federal agents and prosecutors to the letter of the
law.It's also unfortunate because it demonstrates that the FBI swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law to track cellular phones--but then, secretly,
went ahead and did it, anyway.FBI officials swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law to track cellular
phones but are doing it, anyway. When lobbying for that law, the Communications Assistance for LawEnforcement Act, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh assured the U.S. Senate that location surveillance would never take place unless there was evidence of
wrongdoing. "It does not include any information which might disclose the generallocation of a mobile facility or service, beyond that associated with the area code or exchange of the facility or service," Freeh testified . "There is no intent whatsoever, with reference to this term, to acquire anything
that could properly be called 'tracking' information." So much for promises from politicians. ... _______________________________________________ EPIC_IDOF mailing list EPIC_IDOF () mailman epic org https://mailman.epic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/epic_idof ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- E-tracking through your cell phone David Farber (Feb 14)