Federal officials routinely have been asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives, and other criminal suspects, reports the Washington Post.
In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear that such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.
Such requests run counter to the Justice Department’s internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government’s request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied, says The Post.
The issue is taking on greater relevance as wireless carriers race to offer tracking services that allow cellphone users to know where their friends or families are. The companies are hoping to recoup investments they have made to meet a federal mandate to provide enhanced 911, or E-911, location tracking.
- Sprint Nextel’s “Loopt” service sends an alert when a friend is near
- Verizon’s Chaperone service ($9.99/mo), can set up a “geofence” around, say, a few city blocks and receive an automatic text message if a child, holding the cellphone, travels outside that area.
- AT&T’s TeleNav Track from TeleNav, tracks mobile workers and can provide accurate estimated time of arrival and keep record of customer visits.
“Most people don’t realize it, but they’re carrying a tracking device in their pocket,” said Kevin Bankston of the privacy advocacy group, Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Cellphones can reveal very precise information about your location, and yet legal protections are very much up in the air.” Microsoft’s MapPoint Location Server, for example, allows developers to create to create “geofence” applications for Smartphones.
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, reported USA Today last year, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.
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