Congressmen Push For Location Tracking Disclosure

[DaBees-Knees]

 http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20049 ... ditorPicks

Two congressmen are trying to pry information out of wireless carriers about how closely they track their customers' whereabouts. Letters sent to AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile this week ask what personally identifiable information is stored, how long it is kept, and for what other purposes it's used.

Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) asked for responses no later than April 19. Their request came after Germany's Zeit Online published data showing that a cellular provider kept track of tens of thousands of locations that one person visited over six months.

Their letters could prove more important than they might seem: this type of data collection is prized by police, but details about each company's procedures are hard to locate, and in many cases impossible.

If the responses from the companies are illuminating, they could influence the forthcoming debate in the U.S. Congress about whether to require police to obtain search warrants before tracking someone's location.

George Orwell and "1984" seems to be setting the game plan for some!  

[norezen]

carrying a cellphone is voluntary so i doubt warrants will be necessary. it would be up to the discretion of the cellphone carrier.

[GhostShip]

I,m pretty sure that some aspects of tracking folks and thus invading their privacy will fall foul of exisiting US laws, of course they will resort to saying all citizens might be terrorists ,the same excuses they always trot out when they seek to use fear to impose yet further rights abuses.