Cell Phone Surveillance on the Rise

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act was enacted in 1986, long before the smart phone, and has not been an updated to give guidance to law enforcement of what's legal and what's not. The Supreme Court did rule law enforcement could not attach a GPS tracking device to a vehicle without a warrant but that ruling was so narrow that it didn't specifically deal with cell phones that have GPS capabilities. We know what happens when you don't deal with specifics.

In 2011, law enforcement agencies made more than 1.3 million requests for consumer cell phone records. It didn't take long for law enforcement to find a gray area between privacy and consumer protection.

A couple of years ago,my sister was complaining to her daughter because she had  to go buy a new cell phone she had lost at the church's yard sale. My sister had an inexpensive phone with just a few contacts in it, but that didn't stop my niece from telling her husband, who's a Texas City policeman about the situation. While off duty, my niece's husband had called Verizon for a GPS location, which he received. To make a long story short, the person in possession of the phone, said that she had found it and was trying to find its owner. My niece's husband was wrong in so many ways because he didn't ask my sister's permission nor was he on duty. It's not a big deal but laws should be in place to prevent the misinterpretation of the law.

My carrier, AT&T, has a team of more than 100 workers who handle the requests pouring in from local state and Federal law enforcement agencies. Carriers say that the demand is so large as that they had to start charging law enforcement $25.00 to locate a cell phone using GPS, $25.00 to retrieve a user's text messages and $50.00 for a "cell tower dump." That" cell tower dump" could include your messages and phone calls without your knowledge and permission.

Representative Ed Markey-D-Mass. Said his investigation into the matter revealed two inappropriate requests from law enforcement and one from someone impersonating a police officer. To their credit, most carriers require a warrant but some comply with a subpoena that is not signed off by a judge.

There has to be exceptions for emergencies, and at times we have to leave it to the discretion of a 911 call center, as to whether there's an immediate threat to someone's life. Think about that, if it were your loved, one would you want to sit and wait for all the subpoenas and warrants to be signed before first responders can take action?


I remember being excited because the new Windows 7 was going to be equipped with GPS software that would be able to track your lost computer until a friend reminded me that it could also track you. The civil libertarians put enough pressure on Microsoft to get them to allow users to disable that feature.

Like many of us I don’t have anything to hide but I want to be treated with the respect every law abiding citizen should have. I don’t want to hinder law enforcement but I don’t want to give them unlimited, unchecked power either.

I remember the day I was first hired in the old timer took me back to the break room and said, “this is our coffee kitty; we have a lock on it to keep honest people honest." Don't you think it's time for parties involved to amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, if for nothing else to "keep honest people honest?"

Cell Phone Addiction

It took me a month to two to convince my wife to get rid of the land line phone because she cherished the old number we had for over 30 years. She worried that we wouldn't have any type of service during a hurricane. A mother has to have some type of communication with her children at all times; mama grizzlies...:-) We had a phone that plugged directly into the outlet without the need for electricity. Can you believe it, she went out and bought a telephone receiver (looks like a regular phone) which she can answer and talk like she used to? The receiver had to initially be paired with her cell phone and after that, it automatically pairs itself when she is within the 30 feet of the base. I’m afraid she is going back to ignoring her emails and text messages. I must've spent a good 3 days teaching her how to use the iPhone and she caught on but now she may be drifting back to her comfort zone.

The other day, my wife threw a big scare into us. While she was still under the carport she called me from her car and then her voice drifted and I couldn't hear her, so I hung up and tried to call her back several times. I then called  my children to help me find her. A few minutes later she came up the drive way all smiling, not knowing what she had just put us through. You see, she was going to Walgreens and called me to see if I needed anything, while she was out and about. She dialed me from the Prius (within those 30 feet) but then realized she didn't have her cell with her and decided she didn't need it since she was only going to Walgreens and back. For some reason she had forgotten that she had called me. If she hadn't called me, there would not have been a problem. Those 15 minutes were like an eternity.

I've gotten too attached to my phone, when I get home ,I place it on a coffee table next to my recliner, sometimes I glance at it now and then, to check the VA and my personal blog. My ESPN app reminds me when my favorite team has started playing, scores and updates. There has been a couple times when the Astros got behind by three runs or more, so I switched channels to watch something else. A few minutes later, the familiar ESPN tone came on telling me that Houston caught up, so I switched back to watch the game. I also use the cell to track my bike activities and when I'm through, I get a report of how many miles I traveled, average speed, and time elapsed for my records. I can also look at the map to see the route I traveled.

Well I now have an app to remind me on Thursday to look for that Mother's Day card. It's funny how my older sister and my wife agree that they don't want any festivities because all they want is a phone call or two and then to be left alone for a good portion of the day to just relax..What do they know?....:-)