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US Cell Carriers Are Selling Access To Your Real-Time Phone Location Data (zdnet.com)
Four of the largest cell giants in the US are selling your real-time location data to a company that you've probably never heard about before. ZDNet: In case you missed it, a senator last week sent a letter demanding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigate why Securus, a prison technology company, can track any phone "within seconds" by using data obtained from the country's largest cell giants, including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, through an intermediary, LocationSmart. The story blew up because a former police sheriff snooped on phone location data without a warrant, according The New York Times. The sheriff has pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful surveillance.
Yet little is known about how LocationSmart obtained the real-time location data on millions of Americans, how the required consent from cell user owners was obtained, and who else has access to the data. Kevin Bankston, director of New America's Open Technology Institute, explained in a phone call that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act only restricts telecom companies from disclosing data to the government. It doesn't restrict disclosure to other companies, who then may disclose that same data to the government. He called that loophole "one of the biggest gaps in US privacy law. The issue doesn't appear to have been directly litigated before, but because of the way that the law only restricts disclosures by these types of companies to government, my fear is that they would argue that they can do a pass-through arrangement like this," he said. Further reading: The Tech Used To Monitor Inmate Calls Is Able To Track Civilians Too.
Yet little is known about how LocationSmart obtained the real-time location data on millions of Americans, how the required consent from cell user owners was obtained, and who else has access to the data. Kevin Bankston, director of New America's Open Technology Institute, explained in a phone call that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act only restricts telecom companies from disclosing data to the government. It doesn't restrict disclosure to other companies, who then may disclose that same data to the government. He called that loophole "one of the biggest gaps in US privacy law. The issue doesn't appear to have been directly litigated before, but because of the way that the law only restricts disclosures by these types of companies to government, my fear is that they would argue that they can do a pass-through arrangement like this," he said. Further reading: The Tech Used To Monitor Inmate Calls Is Able To Track Civilians Too.
Any sane lawyer could sue all these telecom companies under both the EU GPDR and the US/Canada data treaties.
Your rights don't end at the border, unless you're only an American.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
That is all.
...that signing several thousand pages of contracts over fifteen different TOU's without reading them could lead to this.
They'll ignore it, or the contract for your phone will require you click through an agreement to let them do as they will. Even if that fails, they'll do it anyway. A fine here and there is nothing compared to the powe of knowing where every person, car, motorcycle and eventually bicycle on the planet is. It's THE power, knowing where everyone is, what they read, what they say, and who they associate with. Every nation on the planet, every corporation, every secret and public police will never let this go. Ever notice how Wikileaks is the only new org on the planet that gets real leaks? There is a reason for that. They brag openly to reporters they don't need a warrant to know who's been talking to them. We are sewn shut.
Any sane lawyer could sue all these telecom companies under both the EU GPDR and the US/Canada data treaties.
Your rights don't end at the border, unless you're only an American.
Umm.. wait, what? "Rights" are a concept granted by the country you're in. They do, literally, end at the border. "Your Rights" become whatever the rights are that are granted to foreigners in the new country you entered if the new country does grant such rights. Do all countries even have the concept of individual rights? If you go to China for Example with the 9mm pistol your home country gives you the right to carry you aren't going to have a good day. If you go to North Korea running your mouth about how their emperor sucks badly... same thing - they don't care about the rights you had when you were in your "home" country. They do care that foreign nationals in those countries don't have the right to do those things.
You do the opposite of what he said.
You say you don't care about your privacy, yet you post as anonymous coward. Interesting.
hence... treaties... which extend/grant rights to citizens of other constituencies based upon mutual agreement!!
It is just as likely to fail if you travel with your phone. The charge is declined because if falls outside your normal buying habits.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!