Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request

I am researching the myriad of ways that we can be tracked and any evidence of law enforcement or government use of these methods in violation of the US Constitution/Bill of Rights.

Any evidence of such activities must be met with outrage and action by Americans or we will bear, in part, responsible for the rapid downhill slide of our country into the common abyss of Fascism.

Lex Sentry


Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request
Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 23, 2007; A01



Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Such requests run counter to the Justice Department's internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government's request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied.

The issue is taking on greater relevance as wireless carriers are racing to offer sleek services that allow cellphone users to know with the touch of a button where their friends or families are. The companies are hoping to recoup investments they have made to meet a federal mandate to provide enhanced 911 (E911) location tracking. Sprint Nextel, for instance, boasts that its "loopt" service even sends an alert when a friend is near, "putting an end to missed connections in the mall, at the movies or around town."

With Verizon's Chaperone service, parents can set up a "geofence" around, say, a few city blocks and receive an automatic text message if their child, holding the cellphone, travels outside that area.

"Most people don't realize it, but they're carrying a tracking device in their pocket," said Kevin Bankston of the privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Cellphones can reveal very precise information about your location, and yet legal protections are very much up in the air."

State Police Spy on Law Abiding Political Acivists

Maryland State Police officers spent hundred of hours infilterating and recording peace activists and anti-death penalty protesters in 2005 and 2006 the ACLU revealed yesterday. Although there is no mention of any illegal activity by any of these people, some of their names were entered into a Law Enforcement databse along with suspected terrorists ann other dangerous criminals. (No more "Friendly Skies" for them)

Nearly 300 man hours and 14 months of time was invested in this garbage. I wonder how much the tax-payers were looted for?

The Superintendant of Maryland State Police said "does not inappropriately curtail the expression or demonstration of the civil liberties of protesters or organizations acting lawfully."

Really?

These were pacifists who held open meeting and publicsised meeting times and dates.
Why would Maryland State Police be wasting their time with this?



According to the ACLU;

The MSP's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division also appears to have been working to specially track the activities of at least one individual activist, Max Obuszewski, who was entered into the "Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" (HIDTA) database. That database, which is funded by the federal government, was intended to facilitate information sharing among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies engaged in drug interdiction. In December 2006, Congress modified the federal law to allow HIDTA funds to be used to assist in terrorism investigations as well. The entry for Mr. Obuszewski indicates that the "Primary Crime" linked to him in the database is "Terrorism-Anti Govern[ment], and the "Secondary Crime" is "Terrorism – Anti-War Protestors" – which are outlandish and blatantly false accusations.



So, even though Mr.Obuszewski has broken no laws and there is no evidence that he intends to he now has his name in a federal database labeled an anti-government terrorist?! They are building themselves a mighty big list and in the process transforming lawful dissent into boiling resentments.

Lex