The ACLU recently released the results of an extensive study
that surveyed more than 200 local police agencies to see details about their
data-gathering habits from cell phone providers.
In a response to that study, California State Senator Mark Leno (D), introduced legislation that would require mobile companies to not
only publicly disclose the number of law enforcement location-related requests
that they receive, they would also be prohibited from disclosing such
information without a warrant.
CTIA (the wireless industry trade group) sent a letter to Leno
in response, explaining that they oppose the legislation due to the “unduly
burdensome and costly mandates on providers and their employees” that it would
create.
Of course, the ACLU fired back a letter in response that
letter, arguing that wireless companies should have their customers’ privacy at
heart, and Nicole Ozer, an ACLU policy director in California took issue with the idea that a
reporting requirement would be burdensome as the firms must already keep track
of that data.
What kind of data are they talking about? Mostly location information and “pen trap and
trace” data that shows whom a caller is talking with Federal agencies are supposed to report
annually how often they use these investigative techniques, but the Justice
Department repeatedly fails to provide such reports to Congress.
Other companies already disclose how often they are
requested to provide information by law enforcement, Google voluntarily
provides that data on their Transparency Report website. But without data from cell phone providers it
is difficult to tell whether or not customers privacy rights are truly being
abused.
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