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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are asking a federal court to order the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over records about the agency’s tracking of mobile phone users.
The two civil liberties groups have filed a lawsuit…saying U.S. residents should have a right to know the extent of mobile phone tracking done by U.S. attorneys offices.
In the past year and a half, multiple news reports and court cases have revealed that some U.S. attorneys were claiming not to need probable cause of a crime in order to track people using mobile phones, the groups say in their complaint. In some cases, U.S. attorneys have bypassed court-ordered warrants, with law enforcement agents obtaining “tracking data directly from mobile carriers without any court involvement,” the complaint says…
The ACLU filed a request for information on the tracking program, under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, in November, but the DOJ has not yet delivered the documents requested.
Of course, if you have complete trust in your government, you needn’t worry. Right?
#17 “Patrick, the national ID card has come about more recently, unless you want to blame FDR for the SSN number.”
FDR was a major screw up and crim when it came to personal liberties. I was talking about encryption though…
It is worth noting that even Big Brother in the ‘free’ state of Oceana didn’t have the power to track the exact movements of everyone.
In other words, if this is true (and it seems to be), there are substantive ways in which Americans are less free than the people in that dreadful, totalitarian fantasy state.
That should be terrifying, it should give rise to action. But Americans are too lazy to save ourselves from the hideous monster that is gnawing on their feet.
What do they mean by “tracking”? Your physical movements or your calling numbers (or both)? If the former, then isn’t “tracking” another way of saying “stalking”? So it’s legal for the government to stalk you, electronically, without any good reason. But you can’t stalk say a movie star, for any reason. Mainly because they’re a lot richer than you. What the DOJ is doing is date mining, pure and simple. Because what good would it do for them to know where your cell phone has been. Any smart criminal or terrorists would just strap the thing to a dog, and send it roaming. “Hey, track this feds.” I’m sure they’re some revenue model for this movement data, in the works.