[2999] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
FBI seeks warrantless cellphone position information
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Sun Jul 19 22:55:48 1998
To: cryptography@c2.net
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: 19 Jul 1998 22:52:45 -0400
[From the July 19th Edupage]
FOR FBI, MOBILE PHONE ISSUE IS WHERE IT'S AT
Federal Bureau of Investigations director Louis J. Freeh wants the Senate
Appropriations Committee to write legislation requiring phone companies to
provide law enforcement officers the precise location of cellular phone
users suspected of committing a crime. The officers would not even need a
court order in the case of an "emergency" (such as suspicion of a felony,
pursuit of a fugitive, or danger to human life). Current technology allows
phone companies to get location information on any cellular phone that is
turned on and operating within the cellular network -- even if the user is
not actually engaged in a phone call. The FBI plan is opposed both by the
telecommunications industry, which says it would cost billions of dollars to
implement, and by civil liberties groups, which consider it a dangerous and
unconstitutional invasion of privacy. (New York Times 17 Jul 98)
