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DOJ: We Don't Need a Warrant To Track You

Posted by Soulskill on from the well-we-don't-need-a-warrant-to-fire-you dept.

GovTechGuy writes "The Department of Justice maintains it does not need a warrant to track an individual using location data captured from their cellphone. 'Cellphone location records are currently lumped under Title 1 and Title 2 of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (PL 99-508), which cover stored communications and call details. Accessing those types of information typically requires only a court order, rather than a warrant, as is required for the contents of a phone call or digital message under Title 3.' That has prompted Maine and Montana to pass laws banning warrantless cellphone tracking; unfortunately, Congress doesn't appear close to doing the same."

4 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Turnabout is Fair Play, Right? by SirGarlon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Turnabout would be to publish a Web service showing the real-time locations of all DOJ employees' cell phones. After all, according to them, that information is not private.

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
  2. Do as a say, not as I do? by asmkm22 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder how the government would feel if someone were to put up a website that gives real-time information about the location of members of congress, based on cell-phone data? Surely that wouldn't make them feel a bit uneasy, even if there were no publicly-ill intentions, right?

  3. Thank goodness we don't have fascists in change by Picass0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm so glad we have a two party system where one party is so very obviously good and virtuous and the other is evil for all to see. We should keep voting blindly along party lines based on the rhetoric these people speak rather than looking at their actions.

    I must excuse myself, the Two Minute Hate is about to begin.

  4. Ditto on license plates, says ACLU by QuasiSteve · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://rt.com/usa/aclu-license-plate-surveillance-216/

    The American Civil Liberties Union has released documents confirming that police license plate readers capture vast amounts of data on innocent people, and in many instances this intelligence is kept forever.

    According to documents obtained through a number of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by ACLU offices across the United States, law enforcement agencies are tracking the whereabouts of innocent persons en masse by utilizing a still up-and-coming technology.