[IP] E-tracking through your cell phone

[David Farber]

E-tracking through your cell phone
By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/E-tracking+through+your+cell+phone/
2010-1039_3-6038468.h
tml

Story last modified Mon Feb 13 06:24:49 PST 2006

You may already know this, but your cell phone happens to be a miniature
tracking device that can be used to monitor your location from afar.

There are times when knowing your exact location is useful, of
course. It
would be handy for a phone to help you find a gas station in a pinch, or
bleep when you're about to take the wrong highway exit.

But the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have seized on the
ability to
locate a cellular customer and are using it to track Americans'
whereabouts
surreptitiously--even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

A pair of court decisions in the last few weeks shows that judges are
split
on whether this is legal. One federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin
on Jan.
17 ruled it was unlawful, but another nine days later in Louisiana
decided
that it was perfectly OK.

This is an unfortunate outcome, not least because it shows that some
judges
are reluctant to hold federal agents and prosecutors to the letter of
the
law.

It's also unfortunate because it demonstrates that the FBI swore
never to
use a 1994 surveillance law to track cellular phones--but then,
secretly,
went ahead and did it, anyway.

FBI officials swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law to track
cellular
phones but are doing it, anyway.

When lobbying for that law, the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh assured the U.S.
Senate that
location surveillance would never take place unless there was
evidence of
wrongdoing.

"It does not include any information which might disclose the general
location of a mobile facility or service, beyond that associated with
the
area code or exchange of the facility or service," Freeh testified .
"There
is no intent whatsoever, with reference to this term, to acquire
anything
that could properly be called 'tracking' information."

So much for promises from politicians.

...

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