Law Enforcement Mobile Phone Requests Raise Privacy Concerns in Washington
1.3 million made last year
Is tracking consumers across the Internet more or less frightening than law enforcement's habit of requesting personal data from mobile phone carriers? An eye-popping 1.3 million requests were made for the cell phone records of consumers last year by police agencies, according to data compiled by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
The report is the first comprehensive analysis of enforcement requests for mobile phone information and could open up a whole new privacy debate in Washington.
Markey, co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, last month queried nine mobile wireless companies about their policies and practices for sharing customers' mobile phone information with law enforcement, following a report in the New York Times that reported routine requests were made with little judicial oversight and no consumer knowledge.
In some cases, the requests included what is called a "cell tower dump," which provides the phone numbers of all the cell users that connect...
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