Legal Battles Over Cellphone Tracking 141
stupefaction writes "The New York Times reports on recent successful court challenges to police use of cellphone tracking information in the course of an investigation. From the article: 'In the last four months, three federal judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard applied to requests for search warrants. [...] Cellular operators like Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless know, within about 300 yards, the location of their subscribers whenever a phone is turned on.'"
Patriot Act (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Criminals are tracked? (Score:2, Insightful)
In a city like Chicago, that's a lot of ground to cover.
Re:Shock! (Score:4, Insightful)
My father once told me, "Every time the police want a new power, you have to drag them over the coals, make them justify it to us. Otherwise they just get lazy and we all suffer for it."
Re:As a rule of thumb... (Score:5, Insightful)
The E911 service is, I believe, an implementation of AGPS where the phone assists in tracking to get an even closer match.
What's being tracked... (Score:5, Insightful)
'Cellular operators like Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless know, within about 300 yards, the location of their subscribers whenever a phone is turned on.'
They may be able to track the location of the telephone, or the SIM card,/b> but not the subscriber.
A different thing alltogether - if you think about it. This cannot be used to locate a suspect on a crime scene, only her phone.
Re:Criminals are tracked? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's tough being so cynical about an organization thats supposed to be protecting us, but living in Houston, I can say that they've earned every last bit of it.
Not too ambiguous (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see what everyone's worried about. They just want to track anyone who might be commiting a crime.
Re:So what? (Score:1, Insightful)
Its not just cellular phones (Score:4, Insightful)
There will be those that learn to foil such tracking attempts, and so, in the end, the only people that can't be tracked are the people that should be.... which again means lots of money spent for little or no value... EXCEPT that Google and others will take advantage of that and offer us services and goods for free if we listen to the location based advertising. Yes, as you drive past the McD's your cell phone will ring with an SMS messsage containing a 15 percent off coupon for a happy meal if you buy in the next 11 minutes.
That is the reason that location tracking will continue to grow... not because of the police.
Personal Tracking Requirement (Score:1, Insightful)
I would love to be able to track the location of my 15 year old daughter's cell phone. She is bipolar and chemical dependent. We can not keep an eye on her 24 hours a day and occassionally she simply disappears. Yes, we are trying to get her into a residential treatment program, but finding something that deals with her problems (dual diagnosis) and is covered by our insurance is proving difficult. If I had unlimited funds I would place her in the best place possible, but financial realities makes that impossible.
If personal tracking were possible, we would be able to find her during one of her disappearing acts and (hopefully) keep her out of danger. Binge drinking is one of the problems, and in that state she places herself in extreme danger. It's basically a race between us finding a suitable treatment program and her self-destructing.
Re:Patriot Act (Score:3, Insightful)
three federal judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe that a crime has been or is being committed.
What have the other judges been doing? They just allow this kind of tracking for no reason, or what?
Cop: "Judge, we want to track these guys by their cell phone."
Judge: "Oh, have they committed a crime?"
Cop: "Well, no, not that I'm aware of."
Judge: "Ah. But you think they're going to commit a crime?"
Cop: "Um. Well, it's possible. But, no real reason to think so, no."
Judge: "Uh-huh. And you want to track their movements because... ??"
Cop: "Well, look, they just seem odd, that's all. They seem, you know, suspicious"
Judge: "Ohhh... Why didn't you say so. Ok, here, I'll sign it"
?!?!?!