Feds want to turn your phone into a tracking device

Have you been anywhere you wouldn’t want to admit to when questioned by law enforcement?

The government is fighting to be able to follow the movements of any American based on the location of their cell phones, effectively turning them into tracking devices they can use without even having to provide any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The Justice Department is facing off against electronic privacy groups in federal appeals court in Philadelphia, arguing that the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution does not afford privacy in business records, such as those kept by cell phone service providers.

At issue is a Pittsburgh drug-trafficking investigation in which the ATF sought tracking data because suspects used multiple vehicles and residences. Their request was denied, on the grounds that information was “extraordinarily” personal and sensitive.

Your electronic communications are protected in theory by the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, but government lawyers take the view that it applies only to the content of communications — not data such as geographic location generated by mobile devices.

And it’s not that the government can’t obtain the information — it’s that they want to be able to get it without convincing a judge they have probable cause for a search warrant to get it. So if they’re really determined, and really persuasive, they’ll get it even if they have to have a warrant. But they’re fighting for the ability to skip that step.

The appeals court panel sees the issue as so important that they waived customary 30-minute limits for oral arguments, allowing it to go on for 80 minutes.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committe, which generated the 1986 privacy law, plans to revisit the issue through 21st century eyes later this year.