Big Brother watches you through your cell phone


Did you know that even if your phone is off, FedGovs and many StateGovs can track you?
I have a love-hate relationship with cell phones.

On the one hand, the geek factor really gets me. The idea that you can call anyone you want anytime you want nearly anywhere you want, well, that is an amazing piece of technology. And given the size, every time I hold one I am seriously tempted to flip it open and say "Beam me up, Scotty." And the information you can get from some, local restaurants, gas stations, current movies playing, all incredible.

Enough to make a geek (or a recovering geek) drool and damn near orgasm.

Then there is the fact that with a cell phone, people can talk to you even if you don't want them to. Somehow I don't think that a conversation about "Desperate Housewives" should be shared with everyone in a twenty foot radius. Or when you are standing in the checkout line at the grocery store and a person in front of you whips out their cell phone, recites the contents of their cart, and says "Did I forget anything?"

That doesn't count the issue of car safety or the fact that some people seem to have their cell phones surgically attached.

I've been looking to upgrade my Palm and I was looking at Treos there for a while. But my distaste for cell phones outweighed the geek. When I do upgrade, it won't be with an all in one. Mainly because I don't think Americans should be tracked.

And that brings us to what Declan McCullagh tells us about cell phone tracking.

There are times when knowing your exact location is useful, of course. It would be handy for a phone to help you find a gas station in a pinch, or bleep when you're about to take the wrong highway exit.

But the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have seized on the ability to locate a cellular customer and are using it to track Americans' whereabouts surreptitiously--even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

A pair of court decisions in the last few weeks shows that judges are split on whether this is legal. One federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin on Jan. 17 ruled it was unlawful, but another nine days later in Louisiana decided that it was perfectly OK.

This is an unfortunate outcome, not least because it shows that some judges are reluctant to hold federal agents and prosecutors to the letter of the law.

It's also unfortunate because it demonstrates that the FBI swore never to use a 1994 surveillance law to track cellular phones--but then, secretly, went ahead and did it, anyway.

A couple of things here. First, if Federal judges disagree, that is a good sign that SOMEONE is breaking the law. Second, American law is predicated on the assumption of innocence, tracking someone just because you can pretty much nullifies that. Third, once government power exists, you can pretty much count on that power being abused.

As it stands, the only way this will get changed is if enough people protest or find ways to monkey-wrench the system.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - February 13, 2006 at 03:45 PM  Tag


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