Are Law Enforcement Officials Violating Your Privacy?

“Local, state and federal law enforcement authorities made more than 1.3 million demands for cell phone subscriber information last year, in a sign of their growing reliance on technology to aid criminal and emergency investigations” (Nakashima, 2012). With more and more Americans carrying cell phones to communicate, law enforcement officials will continue to order cell phone companies to help them track data, in real-time, to assist them in catching fugitives and suspects. Further, law enforcement officials will use this real-time tracking of data to help them prevent crimes as well. With this access, law enforcement officials can pin point anyone’s exact location, they can see a list of someone’s calls made and calls received, they can see all of someone’s text and email messages sent and received, and they can set wire taps to listen in on someone’s cell phone conversations.

Judges have been granting warrants to law enforcement officials for real-time tracking of cell phone data without having to prove that there is probable cause that a crime is taking place (Nakashima, 2012). Additionally, “the Obama administration maintains that Americans have no expectation of privacy in cell-site records because they are “in the possession of a third party” — the mobile phone companies. What’s more, the authorities maintain that the cell site data is not as precise as GPS tracking and there is no trespass or physical intrusion on a customer’s cell phone when the government obtains historical cell-site records from a provider” (Kravets, 2012). In fact, just about one month ago an appellate court decision was made on this very issue. The decision affirmed that obtaining a warrant without having to prove probable cause to use real-time tracking of cell phone data to catch a suspect and/or prevent a crime is valid, effectively creating legal precedent on this issue. Thus, this ruling was a huge win for both law enforcement officials and prosecutors alike. This is especially true because, the Supreme Court recently ruled that you must prove probable cause that a crime has been or might be committed to acquire a warrant for placing GPS trackers on a suspect’s vehicle. As a result, both law enforcement officials and prosecutors will shift to primarily using real-time tracking of cell phone data to catch suspects and/or prevent crimes (Kravets, 2012). This should lead to a major increase in demands for cell phone subscriber information.

With this knowledge do you feel safer or do you feel like your privacy is being breached? While law enforcement officials and prosecutors gaining legal precedent to use real-time tracking of cell phone data without probable cause will potentially lead to more arrests, many politicians are fighting this ruling. This is because they believe that this judgment strips innocent Americans of some of their 4^th amendment rights. Particularly, the right to any judicial warrant granted must be supported by probable cause. Representative Edward J. Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts) speaking on the issue said, “we cannot allow privacy protections to be swept aside with the sweeping nature of these information requests, especially for innocent consumers…Law enforcement agencies are looking for a needle, but what are they doing with the haystack?” (Nakashima, 2012). Personally, I agree with Representative Markey. Without having to prove probable cause, law enforcement officials can go on wild goose chases when they sweep through the data that they receive from the cell phone companies. This ruling violates not only my privacy, but also my fellow Americans’. Additionally, it violates our 4^th Amendment right that any warrant obtained is required to be supported by proof of probable cause. So, I will ask you again: do you feel safer or do you feel like your privacy is being compromised.