Obama administration urges freer access to cellphone records

[brotherplanet]

(Reuters) - The U.S. Congress should pass a law to give investigators freer access to certain cellphone records, an Obama administration official said on Thursday, in remarks that raised concern among advocates of civil liberties and privacy.

Jason Weinstein, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division, argued that requirements for warrants at early stages of investigations would "cripple" prosecutors and law enforcement.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this year that a warrant was needed to put a GPS satellite tracking device on a suspect's vehicle, prompting questions about other instances where probable-cause warrants should be needed to obtain information in the rapidly changing world of mobile devices.

Federal courts around the country are split on whether to require warrants for records of phone usage collected at towers that transmit cellphone signals, Weinstein told a conference.

While prosecutors have been told to get warrants to put a tracking device on a vehicle or to track the precise GPS location of a person via their cellphone, they should not be needed to obtain data from the towers, Weinstein said.

"There really is no fairness and no justice when the law applies differently to different people depending on which courthouse you're sitting in," he said at the "State of the Mobile Net" conference sponsored by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee.

"For that reason alone, we think Congress should clarify the legal standard," he said.

One civil liberties advocate sought to challenge that assertion, saying the Obama administration had made the same argument during the Supreme Court GPS case and it had been soundly rejected.

"Not one justice accepted the Department of Justice's argument in that case. It got zero votes," Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said during the conference. "We're all here, the criminals are not taking over the country."

While some proposals have been made in Congress to address concerns and confusion about when a warrant is needed as new technologies emerge, the chances of legislation passing are considered slim because it is an election year and little legislation is expected to pass.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican House of Representatives member Jason Chaffetz of Utah proposed a bill last year trying to detail a legal framework, including requiring a warrant for acquiring location information for a person; however the legislation has not advanced.





http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/ ... 5620120503

[Luminiferous]

Much of this has to do with law enforcement being able to have access to phone records immediately when a crime has been been committed or a person believe to be in danger. It's in regards to being able to track that phone and it's "pings" off area towers to help pinpoint general location of a possible victim's cellphone.
Right now it's up to the discretion of many the phone company to release the records. In many instances, the delay caused the victims to be found too late.

It's funny because most cellphone companies have no problem making money off of your private info that end up with their third-party company buddies and people seem to have no problem with their private viewing being monitored and sold..
OH but the government wants to trace calls/pings of a possible abduction victim?? Fuck that mister!



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Your phone company knows where you live, what websites you visit, what apps you download, what videos you like to watch, and even where you are. Now, some have begun selling that valuable information to the highest bidder.

In mid-October, Verizon Wireless changed its privacy policy to allow the company to record customers' location data and Web browsing history, combine it with other personal information like age and gender, aggregate it with millions of other customers' data, and sell it on an anonymous basis.

That kind of data could be very useful -- and lucrative -- to third-party companies. For instance, if a small business owner wanted to figure out the best place to open a new pet store, the owner could buy a marketing report from Verizon about a designated area. The report might reveal which city blocks get the most foot or car traffic from people whose Web browsing history reveals that they own pets.

Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) is the first mobile provider to publicly confirm that it is actually selling information gleaned from its customers directly to businesses. But it's hardly alone in using data about its subscribers to make extra cash.

All four national carriers use aggregated customer information to help outside parties target ads to their subscribers. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile insist that subscriber data is never actually handed over to third-party vendors; nevertheless, they all make money on it.

AT&T's (T, Fortune 500) AdWorks program, for instance, promotes AT&T's customer base to advertisers. On its AdWorks website, AT&T touts its ability to "reach customized audience segments based on anonymous and aggregate demographics." It then shows customers carefully tailored coupons, in-app ads and Web ads.

Sprint (S, Fortune 500), like Verizon, tracks the kinds of websites a customer visits on their mobile devices as well as what applications they use, according to spokesman Jason Gertzen. Sprint uses that data to help third parties target ads to customers.

That's a step further than Verizon goes. It too lets advertisers target customized messages to Verizon subscribers' mobile phones, but for that initiative, it does not incorporate its customers' Web surfing or location data, according to a company spokesman. Verizon relies on other personal information, including customers' demographic details and home address.

T-Mobile declined to answer specific questions about what kind of information it shares or sells, instead pointing CNNMoney to T-Mobile's privacy policy. The policy's open-ended terms seem to suggest that the company does not divulge customer information, but a T-Mobile spokeswoman acknowledged that the company "collects information about the websites that customers visit and their location" and that it "may use that information in an anonymous, aggregate form to improve our services."

Selling customer information is an age-old practice that is certainly not exclusive to the wireless industry. Brian Kennish, a former DoubleClick engineer who developed the advertising network's mobile ad server, noted that wireless companies have been sharing users' location data with third parties for more than a decade.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/01/technol ... /index.htm

[DEATH ROW JOE]

LMFAO @ another brotherdunce thread. Sound the alarm, a federal prosecutor wants to make it easier to investigate and prosecute crime!






















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[brotherplanet]

DEATH ROW JOE Not at all. But do the flashing lights distract you?




Luminiferous... Good response. I believe the concern here, which is the usual concern, is that it opens itself to abuse by law enforcement and other government agencies.

Much like the concerns involving the Patriot Act, which are legitimate.

[Skate4RnR]

They'll be listening, we're that important.

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

They'll be listening, we're that important.

Dude, I was flying over Kansas yesterday and I wondered what mud hut was yours.

[brotherplanet]