Feds push for tracking cell phones

[Blue Tile Spook]

Feds push for tracking cell phones | Politics and Law - CNET News

In that case, 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.



"This is a critical question for privacy in the 21st century," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who will be arguing on Friday. "If the courts do side with the government, that means that everywhere we go, in the real world and online, will be an open book to the government unprotected by the Fourth Amendment."



Not long ago, the concept of tracking cell phones would have been the stuff of spy movies. In 1998's "Enemy of the State," Gene Hackman warned that the National Security Agency has "been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the '40s--they've infected everything." After a decade of appearances in "24" and "Live Free or Die Hard," location-tracking has become such a trope that it was satirized in a scene with Seth Rogen from "Pineapple Express" (2008).

Nothing really new here to someone that has been watching this evolve.

One difference from the past, it was always stated that a person using a telephone had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Now, the .gov is saying that isn't so.

I don't blame "O" in particular. IMO, this has been sloping downhill for a long time.

 

[rambone]

 

[JohnN]

Here is a product I just ran across that would keep them from tracking your whereabouts via cell phone.

Cell Phone Stronghold Bag-Identity Stronghold

 

[jedi]

Here is a product I just ran across that would keep them from tracking your whereabouts via cell phone.

Cell Phone Stronghold Bag-Identity Stronghold

Even cheaper solution for you...

& find the payphone.

 

[Hoosier Gun Coat]

Even cheaper solution for you...

& find the payphone.

Payphone? I haven't seen one of those in years!

 

[rambone]

Here is a product I just ran across that would keep them from tracking your whereabouts via cell phone.

Cell Phone Stronghold Bag-Identity Stronghold

I like the idea! Do they make bigger ones, that I could fit my head into for safe transportation?

 

[TheDude]

They're just now doing this? I figured the Stasi, pardon me, NSA has been all over this.

 

[AFA1CY]

In that case, 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.

Tell that to the FCC. They banned reception of cell phone frequencies by police scanners because they said the users had "reasonable expectation of privacy".

 

[jedi]

Ya do realize that the tech to "eavesdrop" via your phone (AKA the mic being turned on so someone can hear you EVEN if the phone is OFF) has always been there.


[NOTE] The only way for the phone not to work as a MIC is if you take the battery out. Turning off the phone, the phone is still on.

 

[kwatters]

Just turn it off!!! Can't track it then.

 

[jedi]

Just turn it off!!! Can't track it then.

You need to take the battery out of the phone otherwise the phone is still "on" even if you turn if off by powering it down.

 

[henktermaat]

I keep mine wrapped in a little phone-sized tinfoilt hat. I thought y'all did too?

 

[INGunGuy]

You can turn the phone off, take out the battery, get rid of the cell phone, and go back to using pay phones, the government can still track you, how about when you place the call from the pay phone, they know EXACTLY where that phone is located. Next time you use your phone, you are registered on a cell tower, and they know where you are. If they want to find you, they can...

INGunGuy

 

[Cygnus]

Just turn it off!!! Can't track it then.

You need to watch the first X-Files episode.

You must pull out the battery!!! Where's the foil!!!! Ahhhhh!!!




It won't likely impact any of us. Not that I like the idea or precident.

 

[SD45]

How about a prepaid cell phone that you purchase with cash?

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

The .gov can only track you on the pre-paid cell for the length of time that you use that phone. If you buy one, make a call, then trash the phone - if the .gov knows what number you called from then they can locate you to within about 150 yds., but would lose your location after that because you dumped the phone.

 

[evansvillethompsongunner]

I like the idea! Do they make bigger ones, that I could fit my head into for safe transportation?

That's just a Faraday cage.
Wrap some aluminum foil around your phone, will achieve the same effect.

But as soon as you place a call, they will know.

They've been able to do this for ages.

Slowly but surely, the wheels of our society are rolling to the concentration camp days of old...

When will be too much?

 

[irishfan]

Isn't this the same type of stuff that was brought up in the Patriot Act fiasco?

 

[longbow]

How hard is it to chop down cell towers? That will show them......

 

[Titanium Man]

What's the big deal, they know where I live by my tax forms. They know where I work by my tax forms. I'm usually at one or the other, or in between. Go ahead and track me, I'm pretty predictable.

If I wanted to be unpredictable, wouldn't you think I'd know to ditch the cell phone.