NewsDude
07-03-2008, 08:00 PM
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing the Department of Justice to obtain official records concerning the U.S. government's possible use of cell-phone-tracking technology to spy on individuals without first obtaining a court order based on probable cause.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the civil-liberties groups said the DOJ failed to provide an adequate and timely response to a records request filed last year under the Freedom of Information Act.
"This is a critical opportunity to shed much-needed light on possibly unconstitutional government surveillance techniques," said Catherine Crump, the ACLU lead attorney. "Signing up for cell-phone services should not be synonymous with signing up to be spied on and tracked by the government."
Complying With Current Law
At least some U.S. attorneys may have violated a DOJ "internal recommendation" that "federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas," according to a Washington Post article published last November. Moreover, the ACLU said other media reports have raised the possibility that law-enforcement officers may have obtained tracking data directly from the nation's mobile carriers without any court involvement.
Due to the limited amount of information currently available about the government's tracking practices, the ACLU said it believes the lack of information on the issue raises serious questions about whether the government is complying with current law and the U.S. Constitution.
"The government's policies and practices for monitoring the locations of mobile phones are unclear," the ACLU noted in its original records request. "It is not even apparent whether the government routinely obtains mobile-phone location information without any court supervision whatsoever."
Information pertaining to the DOJ's procedures for obtaining real-time tracking information is vital to the public's understanding of the privacy risks of carrying a mobile...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60617)
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the civil-liberties groups said the DOJ failed to provide an adequate and timely response to a records request filed last year under the Freedom of Information Act.
"This is a critical opportunity to shed much-needed light on possibly unconstitutional government surveillance techniques," said Catherine Crump, the ACLU lead attorney. "Signing up for cell-phone services should not be synonymous with signing up to be spied on and tracked by the government."
Complying With Current Law
At least some U.S. attorneys may have violated a DOJ "internal recommendation" that "federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas," according to a Washington Post article published last November. Moreover, the ACLU said other media reports have raised the possibility that law-enforcement officers may have obtained tracking data directly from the nation's mobile carriers without any court involvement.
Due to the limited amount of information currently available about the government's tracking practices, the ACLU said it believes the lack of information on the issue raises serious questions about whether the government is complying with current law and the U.S. Constitution.
"The government's policies and practices for monitoring the locations of mobile phones are unclear," the ACLU noted in its original records request. "It is not even apparent whether the government routinely obtains mobile-phone location information without any court supervision whatsoever."
Information pertaining to the DOJ's procedures for obtaining real-time tracking information is vital to the public's understanding of the privacy risks of carrying a mobile...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60617)