Is your cell phone being used by the police to spy on you? While convenient for daily communications, the pocket technology has also given the government an unprecedented ability to monitor people’s movements by tracking the geographical location of a cell phone. If you live in Bloomfield or West Orange, you may soon be able to find out just what your phone has told them, based on an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) initiative, launched yesterday.
In one of the largest, coordinated Information Act requests in the history of the United States, 34 ACLU affiliates across the nation — including our own in the Garden State — are demanding that 379 local law enforcement agencies reveal the details about when, why and how they are using cellphone location data to track Americans. The ACLU-NJ sent open records requests to the state’s 50 largest police departments, including West Orange and Bloomfield.
In a press release, the ACLU stated that the requests are being filed under the states’ freedom of information laws in an effort to “strip away the secrecy that has surrounded law enforcement use of cellphone tracking capabilities.”
“The ability to access cellphone location data is an incredibly powerful tool, and its use is shrouded in secrecy,” said Catherine Crump, staff attorney for the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “The public has a right to know how and under what circumstances their location information is being accessed by the government. A detailed history of someone’s movements is extremely personal and is the kind of information the Constitution protects.”
Law enforcement’s use of cell phone location data has been widespread for years, although it has become increasingly controversial recently. Just last week, the general counsel of the National Security Agency suggested to members of Congress that the NSA might have the authority to collect the location information of American citizens inside the U.S. Also, this spring, researchers revealed that iPhones were collecting and storing location information in unknown files on the phone. Police in Michigan sought information about every cellphone near the site of a planned labor protest.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether police need a warrant to place a GPS tracking device on a person’s vehicle. While that case does not involve cell phones, it could influence the rules police have to follow for cell phone tracking.
Congress is considering the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, a bill supported by the ACLU that would require police to get a warrant to obtain personal location information. The bill would protect both historical and real-time location data, and would also require customers’ consent for telecommunications companies to collect location data.
What stories might your cell phone tell about you? Are you worried? Is Big Brother finally here?
For more information on the ACLU’s public records request, click here.
What does it tell them when it’s dropped into a toilet bowl?
what does it tell them when it’s turned off?
Read the disclaimers when downloading those “free” apps. They all require full access to your contacts, calls, location, etc. Why do you suppose they are free?
…..”Why do you suppose they are free?”
Because it’s a free country?
With liberty & justice for all!
even more troubling, I heard the editors of Patch are trying to use the data to determine if Baristas ate at Olive Garden and Red Lobster; now that would be disturbing
I don’t own a cell phone, and that is because I do not want one.
Pretty simple & straight forward. My wife has one, in case I really need one…. which has not yet happened ! It’s great being retired!