From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore@email.msn.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 6.17: FCC Accepting Comments on Mandatory Cell Phone Tracking Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 00:26:49 -0800 To: <Undisclosed.Recipients@majordomo.pobox.com> ISPI Clips 6.17: FCC Accepting Comments on Mandatory Cell Phone Tracking News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Friday November 6, 1998 ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part One: This From: Coalition for Constitutional Liberties, Weekly Update for 11/06/98 Volume I, Number 37 http://www.freecongress.org/cfcl/latest.htm Comment Period for CALEA Wiretapping Regulations Announced The Federal Communications Commission announced this week that it would be accepting comments in response to its Notice of Proposed Rule Making until December 14th. The Commission proposed requiring cellular and other wireless phone companies to track the location of their customers, identifying the cell site at the beginning and end of every call. Weekly Update readers and organizations are encouraged to submit their written comments to the FCC: Federal Communications Commission 1919 M St. Washington, DC 20554 Re: Docket # 97-213 The Center for Democracy and Technology has set up a website for those interested in filing comments: http://www.cdt.org/action/filing.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part Two: This From: The Center for Democracy and Technology, October 28, 1998 http://www.cdt.org FCC PROPOSES LOCATION TRACKING FOR WIRELESS PHONES http://www.cdt.org/action/filing.html As the FBI has realized, new communications technology can be designed in ways that vastly increase the potential for government surveillance. Cellular and other wireless phones can generate information that can be used to locate individuals even if they aren't suspected of a crime. The FCC, with urging from the FBI, is considering a proposal to use your cellphone as a personal tracking device. This unprecedented attack on your privacy must be opposed. Cellular phones have become integral to many peoples' lives. Over fifty million ordinary Americans carry cellular phones with them as they go about their daily activities. Cellular phones are far more closely linked to an individual than are wireline phones. In essense, a cellular phone can become a tracking device, revealing to the government far more about your whereabouts, your associations, and your activities than the government can learn about you from the fact that your home phone was used to make a call a particular time of day. In 1994, when this topic was being debated in Congress, FBI Director Freeh testified that location information was not mandated by law. FBI Director Freeh testified that the law, "does not include any information which might disclose the general location of a mobile facility or service." Congress wanted to protect privacy, and took the FBI at its word that it would not seek to use cellphones as citizen tracking devices. Now the FCC, with urging from the FBI, is proposing to rewrite the law, requiring location information as part of a nationwide surveillance capability. This will allow the FBI to use your cellphone as a personal tracking device. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. 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