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New Limits to FBI Tracking of Cell Phone Users
EvilTwinSkippy writes "According to the Washington Post (free registration),
Two Federal Courts have seperately ruled that the FBI may not track the location of cell phone users without proof that a crime has been committed, or is in progress. The cases involve the FBI seeking court orders to track suspects in real-time using the mobile phone network as part of an ongoing investigation."
The article would suggest that they have to show evidence that a crime has been comitted before they're allowed to track you, just suspecting you isn't enough.
I wish to remain anomalous
Showing evidence is not proving a crime.
Here is the New York decisions.
Unfonatly that link in the OP is very lacking on specific and explaining some details. Here is a quick description and judges reasoning.
1) the FBI asked for the cell towers used so they would have a rough idea of the location the person was located.
2) In most cases this has been easy to get since the Supreme Court has declared that a person has no expectation of privacy with the numbers that are dialed so also as the FBI says the information is relavent the courts allow easy access. The FBI claims that the tower being used for "control codes" is at the same level of expected privacy as phone number, they also used some other laws such as the Stored Communication Act to prove they should have that level of access.
3) in the New York case the judges ruled that this was not the case and the tower being used is different. "When the government seeks to turn a mobile telephone into a means for contemporaneously tracking the movements of its user, the delicately balanced compromise that Congress has forged between effective law enforcement and individual privacy requires a showing of probable cause,"
So it looks like Congress will probaly need to give some more specifications on what they mean.
Not quite. All cellphones have this thing called an IMEI number, which is unique per phone. It's also broadcast to the cellular network.
No batteries, SIM cards.
I recently found a huge phone company selling 5000 $50 prepaid SIM cards for $50,000 with NOTHING MORE than filling out a form that isn't verified. $50,000 gets you 5000 anonymous sim cards with nearly 500,000 minutes. $1500 cash gets you 100 used phones with 100 IMEI numbers.
So a gang has nothing to worry about, yet an innocent person can easily break hundreds of laws without realizing it.
I'm no tin foil conspiracy theorist, but I work 2 days a month near a federal courthouse and love to sit in on trials. Sit through just one and you'll never vote again.
Want more rulings like this?
Donate to the EFF They wrote briefs for these cases.
Remember: the rights you save may be your own.
- Neil Wehneman
P.S. More information is at the EFF coverage of the cases.
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
The UK security service (MI5) doesn't need a court order to access traffic data, which includes tracking your mobile phone. If you find out you've been tracked (or bugged, or burgled) you can complain to a tribunal, but "In the course of their existence, no complaints have ever been upheld by the interception of communications tribunal, security service tribunal and intelligence services tribunal." - The Guardian
It's actually more accurate, and more robust.
As others have pointed out, all current cellphones have network-assisted GPS in them. The intent is to be able to locate you if you call 911. The way most of the cell networks work nowadays, you can only get an accurate location if a phone call is in progress, i.e. the 911 dispatcher wants to know where you are.
The networks can triangulate on cell sites at any time. Cops have used this data for years. This is also how the network can tell the assisted GPS in the phone approximately where it is, so it can listen to satellites and figure out exactly where it is. With this help from the network it can work in environments (particularly urban canyons) where a conventional GPS might not be able to hear enough satellites to get a fix.
To get an accurate location without your knowledge or cooperation has significant privacy issues, and it's correct to expect The Authorities to jump through hoops to get such information. You can buy boxes from various companies that you can put in a vehicle (some vehicles come with these gadgets anyway) or package and follow it around. Some of these boxes use cellphone networks, but since you have, in effect, given permission for your location to be known, there are no privacy issues. I don't know what would happen if The Authorities came around later with a warrant and asked where somebody had been.
Yes, I do this for a living. Hence the AC post.