Dangerous precedent, eh? http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171836.html Dutch Police 'Bombard' Stolen Cell Phones With SMS By Andrew Rosenbaum, Special to Newsbytes AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS 05 Nov 2001, 9:30 AM CST The Amsterdam police have been using short messaging system (SMS) missives to block the use of stolen cell phones, and while the campaign has been successful, mobile providers are concerned about the cost and bandwidth strain of the campaign. About four months ago, the Amsterdam police began cooperating with the national telecommunications provider, KPN Telekom. When stolen phones are reported, the police asked KPN to use for the phone to locate the telephone number. Then, every three to five minutes, the police sent SMS messages to the telephone saying, "Warning, this is a stolen telephone, using it is against the law  stealing it is a felony." The police send the repeated messages to an average of five phones every day. And, according to a spokesman for the law enforcement agency, the tactic is working. After conducting a three-month experiment with the SMS messaging, police found that illicit telephone theft declined by more than half compared to the average theft for the period. "When the stolen phone is bombarded with tough SMS announcements, it's not such a nice thing to have," says Ellie Florax, a spokeswoman for the Amsterdam Police. Pleased with these results, the Amsterdam police want to continue the program, but KPN is hesitating, according to KPN spokeswoman, Caroline Ubachs. "There are some financial and legal issues that have to be resolved," Ubachs says. First, the spokeswoman explains, KPN has to dedicate a certain amount of staff, computer time and bandwidth to both locating the phone numbers of these phones, and providing them to the police. "That costs a considerable amount," says Ubachs, who declined to say how much. KPN wants all the other mobile phone service providers to participate in the campaign as well. But those that the police have approached so far say they do not have the technology to locate phone numbers based on cell phone IDs. The Ministry of Justice now is working with the other providers to help them gear up for the move. Then there is an unresolved legal issue: it isn't clear, under Dutch law, whether police should be obliged to obtain warrants for these SMS "bombardments." Some Dutch civil libertarians suggest the campaign might be illegal under data protection laws. "It is almost certain that this would be the case in many countries," says Ubachs. Police spokesperson Florax insists that this is "a technicality which can easily be solved," but KPN wants lawyers to study the issue before it decides to continue the campaign. "With this strategy," says Florax, "we believe we can practically eliminate cell phone theft in this city." Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com