Cell phone companies see huge rise in surveillance requests from law enforcement

[BABY1]

TweetNaturalNews) As the police state Leviathan grows ever larger, its tentacles are extending further into the privacy of millions of Americans, aided in large part by technology that enhances our lives at the same time it is being used to dismantle our civil liberties.

The latest disturbing example of this trend is manifested in a statistic released by mobile phone carriers, as part of a congressional inquiry. They report that U.S. law enforcement agencies made 1.3 million requests for the phone records of cell phone customers, adding that such requests have been steadily increasing.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., released the 2011 request figures recently, which were tabulated from data supplied by nine wireless carriers. No one - neither the law enforcement agencies nor the telecommunications firms - are required by law or regulation to report the requests, making it the first time police cell-phone surveillance figures have been released to the public.

According to Reuters, Markey sent letters to the nine carriers in June asking for information on the number of scope of police cell-phone requests following a New York Times report in April that tracking cell phone usage had gotten to be common practice for law enforcement agencies, and with little-to-no oversight.

Too many requests or too little supervision?

Responding to Markey's letters were Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc; AT&T Inc; Sprint Nextel Corp; T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG; MetroPCS Communications Inc; C Spire Wireless; Cricket Communications Inc, TracFone, a unit of Mexico's American Movil, and U.S.

Officials from Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. carrier, told Markey the company has seen an average spike in requests of about 15 percent per year over the last five years, and that it responded to about 260,000 requests last year alone.

T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 carrier, reported a 12-to16 percent annual increase, but the company did not provide Markey with the number of requests it receives every year.

Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said more oversight was needed to prevent abuse of customers' rights.

"We cannot allow privacy protections to be swept aside with the sweeping nature of these information requests, especially for innocent consumers," he said in a statement. "Law enforcement agencies are looking for a needle, but what are they doing with the haystack?"

Of the 1.3 million phone record requests, Markey noted that, for comparison, there were only about 3,000 wiretaps issued nationwide in all of 2010.

"We need to know how law enforcement differentiates between records of innocent people, and those that are subjects of investigation, as well as how it handles, administers, and disposes of this information," Markey said.

So frequent are the requests that the companies maintain specific teams to deal with them all, Markey's office said. The companies added that they only release information when they are ordered to do so by a subpoena, or if police agencies can certify they are making the request in response to an emergency where death or serious physical injury could occur.

That said, a press release on Markey's House Web site revealed that in a number of cases, customer data unrelated to any police investigation may be compromised.

Time to amend electronic privacy laws

"The responses received by Rep. Markey were startling in the volume and scope of requests made by law enforcement, including requests for 'cell tower dumps in which carriers provide all the phone numbers of cell users that connect with a tower during a discreet period of time, including information on innocent people," it said.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a technology industry trade group which includes as its members Google Inc., Facebook Inc., Sprint Nextel and Microsoft Corp., voiced concern over the growing demand for user information by law enforcement, saying it appeared to be coming less from a legitimate judge-issued warrant and more from subpoenas without oversight.

"As access to our wireless data gets easier to obtain by government, and we move to using communications methods that don't involve voice such as email and text messaging, there is less reason for them to go through the process of getting a wiretap warrant," said an attorney for the group, Ross Schulman, in a blog post.

CCIA has called on lawmakers to amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986 during the Reagan Administration, to expand full warrant protections to mobile and online content, as well as location information.

[6p6]

TweetThis is absolute BS...are rights and freedoms are being dwindled before our eyes...the probable cause needed for these agencies to get ours wipes records needs to be set so much higher than it currently is...

The best example: 260k request for Verizon vs 3k wire taps...which take federal warrant through federal judges which has to go through a federal attorney first...you see why these lazy law enforcement agencies want to just go the easy route? Way easier! ****'em...

...and as the article asks what is done with all the innocent people info, personal texts calls etc? Absolutely BS...

[BABY1]

TweetThe article states the abundance of "requests" as I doubt those requests were fullfilled without warrants

[ZOOT]

TweetOne of the reasons I get "throw away" phones. They have their hand, and ears, in everything. It would not surprise me to find out all tv's and comp monitors have video surveillance in them. Free Country? Not so sure anymore, unless your an illegal immigrant...but that's a whole nother can of worms

[JsJs24]

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The article states the abundance of "requests" as I doubt those requests were fullfilled without warrants

They do whatever they want, and when it comes to warrants, often they are basically pencil whipped by someone who can sign for the judge. I read an article about that not too long ago. A particular city had a large amount of warrants for things that shouldn't have deserved one, and in many of them the time the warrants were issued were late at night and early in the morning, like 2am etc. The article was saying that the chance of a judge being bothered at those hours for the petty crimes was hard to believe, and thus said they were most likely pencil whipped so to speak.

We have no rights left for the most part because they will find a way around them if they so desire. The Constitution is useless these days and has been for many years. The only time the Constitution is acknowledged is when it is in the interest of the politicians with the power. Sadly many Americans always trust the government and to infringe on our rights if they feel the reason is justifiable, such as with the TSA at airports. People believe the government that our life is at risk when traveling and thus we must give up our 4th amendment right to illegal search and seizure. The same goes for an unconstitutional war, which means any war that Congress did not vote to give the authority to the President. Most people just say well it's for our own safety so we can't follow the Constitution and wait for a vote. Thus we have war in 7 different countries, and all without a vote. There are many other examples too. It's not whether or not I believe we should or shouldn't have security at airports, or be fighting overseas, but merely my point here is that the Constitution is not followed at all these days, except when it is in the interest of the state. I have argued this case with supposed constitution supporters and it amazes me that they don't get it either. Most people that I know who claim to support the Constitution only support those parts that they agree with, and they do not support anything that they don't agree with. In the case with the cell phones, it is unconstitutional unless they get a warrant. Who knows if they are or not really.

[BABY1]

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They do whatever they want, and when it comes to warrants, often they are basically pencil whipped by someone who can sign for the judge.

I am sure you are right and it is like anything, who you know can matter also.

[guns01]

Tweettotally agree with you on this one. everyone was screaming fo a time for change well my proposal on the change is to vote every single one of the pos lawmakers in office out and start over fresh. if they dont do a good job then out with them as well, till we can get some members in office that are actually for the people

[JsJs24]

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totally agree with you on this one. everyone was screaming fo a time for change well my proposal on the change is to vote every single one of the pos lawmakers in office out and start over fresh. if they dont do a good job then out with them as well, till we can get some members in office that are actually for the people

There should have been term limits in the Constitution when it was written, and we need them now but that is not going to happen. They did add a term limit for the office of the President after FDR was elected to 4 terms, but that was only because the Democrats feared a Republican would do the same. The biggest problem that I see with politicians is that they don't ever have to go back to society and live under the laws they passed. Even in cases where they are voted out they still get jobs in Washington in positions of power or influence. Another problem is that only certain types of individuals are drawn to power, especially at mediocre pay. They are egotistical, self centered, and power hungry. An economic historian discussed this and said basically the smartest bad people are the ones who make it into office. They have to be smart but also ruthless and willing to do anything it takes to be victorious, and then anything it takes to remain in office.