Government requests for cell 'tower dumps' spike: Verizon
Source: The Hill
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 08/24/17 12:00 PM EDT
Government requests for the mass disclosure of every caller who connected to a particular cell-phone tower have spiked during the first half of 2017, according to Verizon’s latest transparency report.
Law enforcement seek so-called “tower dumps” to try to identify a suspect in a crime, compelling tower operators to provide the phone numbers of all devices that connected to a specific tower during a given period of time.
“This tool is being used much more frequently by law enforcement,” Verizon notes in the report.
Verizon has received approximately 8,870 warrants or court orders for cell tower dumps in the first half of this year — a huge increase over 2013, when the government sought only 3,200 dumps across the whole of that year. In 2016, the total figure was 14,630.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/347800-government-requests-for-cell-tower-dumps-spikes-verizon
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