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Further to my prior post on Big Brother and communications in the UK post, I had an email from Jon from Ohio telling me about similar privacy issues in the US.
A ruling by the District Court of Massachussets stated that although law enforcement agencies need a warrant to obtain subscriber information (which identifies the actual mobile infrastructure cells and can be used to track individuals) they only have to prove that "relevance" to an ongoing investigation to get historical data.
As you can imagine the reality of this meant that almost anyone's phone records could be accessed on the flimsiest of association.According to Jennifer Granick, the civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the decisions was "deeply screwy" - could not have put it better myself ;)
Ultimately its another sign that governments believe that to account for the exception and abberation of individuals who commit crime the privacy of the majority must be cut.
The ways in which this can be used is already starting to be seen. Take the case of John Halpin, a carpenter supervisor in the US who was fired by the New York Department of Education. What for ? Submitting false time sheets ! How did they know ? THe NYED was able to track his movements having sequestered his mobile phone records and prove that he skipped off work early on several occasions. Scary....no more skipping of early for a pint with your mates anymore...at least not with your mobile..which will probably result in all of you sitting in different places in the same pub without anyone knowing the other is there......how did we survive without the mobile......
