The Obama administration is opposing efforts to stop government attempts to
gain access to users' cell phone locations without a warrant. Carrying on a
legal theme from the Bush administration, the Department of Justice contends that
the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures
does not apply to cell tower locations.
In September 2008, a federal court ruled that location information stored by a
mobile phone provider is legally protected. The court said a judge can and
should require law enforcement to show probable cause in order to access the
stored data. The government has appealed the decision.
"Because wireless carriers regularly generate and retain the records at
issue, and because these records provide only a very general indication of a
user's whereabouts at certain times in the past, the requested cell site
records do not implicate a Fourth Amendment privacy interest," the Department of Justice wrote in its appeal. (PDF)
The government's attempt to gain access to location data without a search
warrant first came to light in 2005 when Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of
the Eastern District of New York publicly ruled that the Department of Justice needed
a search warrant to track a suspect's cell phone movement in a drug-related
case. Orenstein revealed that the government has been routinely using a
baseless legal argument to get secret authorizations from a number of courts.
"Although historical cell tower records provide limited information, that
information is useful to law enforcement because it provides a general
indication of where a cell phone call was made," the DOJ appeal stated.
"No global positioning system data or other more precise location
information (such as 'triangulation' data) is contained in the historical
records ... Indeed, cell site records do not even indicate a phone's distance
from the serving tower, let alone its specific location."
In a March 17 friend of the court filing, the EFF (Electronic Frontier
Foundation) sharply disagreed with the Department of Justice.
"The government argues that federal law requires judges to approve their
applications for location information from cell phone companies—even if the
police don't have probable cause to obtain this sensitive information,"
EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick said in a statement. "Courts
have the right under statute—and the duty under the Constitution—to demand that
the government obtain a search warrant before seizing this private location
data."
As a senator, Obama
infuriated civil libertarians when he voted July 9 to
grant retroactive immunity to telephone companies that participated in the Bush
administration's warrantless domestic spying program. The bill, which
became law, essentially provides the telcos legal protection from more than 40
civil lawsuits claiming the carriers provided the government with customer
telephone and e-mail records of millions of U.S.
citizens—often without a warrant or subpoena.
The telcos contended that they relied on existing
federal, state and local laws and assurances from the highest level of
government when providing access to consumers' personal telephone calls and e-mail
without a subpoena.
 |
Enterprise Mobility News & Reviews 
