From today’s New York Times comes a story that gives the sense we may have
more “Patriot Act” style arguments but this time it is over cell phones.

Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government
agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the
handset.

In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to cellular
technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements of
suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance – which investigators
have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders – has now come
under tougher legal scrutiny.

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.

The rulings, issued by magistrate judges in New York, Texas and Maryland,
underscore the growing debate over privacy rights and government
surveillance in the digital age.

With mobile phones becoming as prevalent as conventional phones (there
are 195 million cellular subscribers in this country), wireless companies
are starting to exploit the phones’ tracking abilities. For example,
companies are marketing services that turn phones into even more precise
global positioning devices for driving or allowing parents to track the
whereabouts of their children through the handsets.

Not surprisingly, law enforcement agencies want to exploit this
technology, too – which means more courts are bound to wrestle with what
legal standard applies when government agents ask to conduct such
surveillance.

Cellular operators like Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless know,
within about 300 yards, the location of their subscribers whenever a phone
is turned on. Even if the phone is not in use it is communicating with
cellphone tower sites, and the wireless provider keeps track of the phone’s
position as it travels. The operators have said that they turn over location
information when presented with a court order to do so.

View complete article

here.

I wonder how easy it will be to get the information under the Patriot Act.
The act already provides federal officers a way to tap phones without a judges
approval. It would just be a matter of time before they argue that provision
before a judge.

Something else that really strikes me in this article is the talk of the
technology. One problem on cell phones over the years has been the 911
capabilities and it providing a location. According to this article they have
been able to locate someone via a cellphone for quite sometime and that should
make the argument moot that they can not get a location from 911 calls.

I don’t own a cell phone and have no desire to own one. The main reason is I
don’t like the hassle of them. I get pissed when I see drivers worrying more
about their phone conversation than driving their cars. Society has become too
dependent upon them. Now if the hassle isn’t enough to keep me away from them,
this story certainly is. It makes you feel that we are living in the matrix.