Apologies if this has already been discussed, but my search did not turn anything up.
I just recently heard of a case currently before the 3d circuit court of appeals, concerning the level of cause the gov’t need establish to obtain cell phone location data. The fed gov’t’s position appears to be that they need show a level short of “probable cause.”
The part that jumped out at me from the article I read over the weekend was the gov’t contention that an individual has no right to provact as to their whereabouts, and if they wanted to not be located, they need just not carry a cell phone.
8 million LEO requests from a single provider (Sprint) in one year?! And the gov’t also desires warrantless installation of GPS on vehicles?
I tend to be somewhat of a privacy nut, but I wondered how other folk thought about this.
Criminals usually carry disposable cell phones. I wonder if they will also be traceable? I had not heard about the GPS for vehicles but many are using Easy Pass GPS systems on toll roads.
A lot of prisoners are on ankle bracelets because of prison crowding. It makes them easy to pick up if they violate parole. Then there are portable Breathalyzer’s installed in ignitions of repeat drunk drivers.
I personally don’t like it. Our town is in an uproar because town officials will not disclose where they have put hidden cameras. They are at certain intersections and on the main roads. It makes me uneasy to think I am being watched as I take a walk.
We even had finger print pads in the bank but they were removed because our state is low on identity theft.
Pretty soon we will be caught not using a turn signal and get a ticket sent in the mail from our Big Brother police web cams. It’s creepy.
This will be interesting. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the Government can use technology (without getting a warrant) to track people when they move through public areas.
A GPS signal on a car won’t cause problems because cars are always out in public. If an officer wanted to track you he could just follow you instead of using a GPS device.
A cellphone is different because you often carry it inside your home. If the GPS signal is clear enough to tell police what room you are in, then that would create a fourth amendment problem since police can’t use technology to find out what people do inside their homes. They aren’t even allowed to know something as mundane as what room the person is in.
But if this case goes to the Supreme Court, there is a good chance the government will get the power to track us through cellphones all they want.