Wired News is reporting that earlier this month, judges in Texas and New York turned back Federal law enforcement attempts to turn cell phones into impromptu tracking devices.
Both judges rejected the location tracking portion of the request in harshly worded opinions, concluding investigators cannot turn cell phones into tracking devices by simply telling a judge the information is likely “relevant” to an investigation.
It’s nice to see judges who “get it” for a change.
Buried further down in the story is this little nugget of information:
…the Electronic Privacy Information Center released documents acquired in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which showed the FBI had repeatedly violated its own rules about surveillance of American citizens.
I think these are the documents they’re referring to, but I haven’t taken the time to read them.
This is why those of us on the side of privacy, smaller government and so on distrust the government–because we trust them to act exactly this way. Ask for what they want, no matter how outrageous, and then, when turned down, go ahead and do it anyway.