Gov't Sued Over Cell Phone Tracking

[kpete]

Source: IPS

U.S.:
Gov't Sued Over Cell Phone Tracking
William Fisher

NEW YORK, 22 Feb (IPS) - If you are a U.S. resident who owns a cell phone, you should care about the outcome of a court case that "could well decide whether the government can use your cell phone to track you - even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime."

That was the warning issued to the public by several major civil liberties organisations as they appeared in federal court in Philadelphia to argue for more privacy protections in the use of cell phones as tracking devices by law enforcement agents.

The case is at the heart of the constitutional crisis now being played out in the U.S. federal court. Civil liberties groups are asking the court to require that the government show probable cause before it can track your whereabouts.

The groups are the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

Read more: http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2879

[LiberalFighter]

1. What about lojack devices?

[madinmaryland]

2. Wouldn't you be giving Lojack consent to track you or the car as

part of the service agreement? Or do the track it only when notified by the owner of the vehicle?

Not sure exactly how that would work.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

3. In the case of a 911 call it can save time and lives.

Other than that obvious exception it should be banned- or we should be given the capability to manually disable it on our phones.