Prev Next
Featured Quizzes
Politix Daily Headlines
Featured Debates
Issues

See all 17 issues

People
White House

See all people

GUEST POST

How Will You Feel When Big Brother Starts Tracking Your Cell Phone?

By Larry Bodine, Lawyers.com Editor-in-Chief

Next>

by Lawyerscom

Lawyers.com t

Image: AP

The police can now track your every move by following the GPS signal in your cell phone, and the cops don't have to get a warrant, according to a new federal appeals court decision in U.S. v. Skinner, Case No. 09-6497.

The case involved a marijuana bust, but the Sixth Circuit ruling applies to the 85 percent of adults who own a cell phone, a dashboard navigation device and many iPads. The court ruled that police efficiency and convenience overrides your right to be free of electronic spying.

Like this article? B Vote Up
?

Is it OK that Big Brother is watching you through cell phone tracking?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • o
    Sterling
    !
    Banks already have camera system, in place, that tracks us. Chicago is using live feed cameras already.
    Rear view morro in some cars, has live feed camera that's available.
    Clovis Police Captain in California, says, He knows everyone who enters into his city and exits already.

    It's just modern life,
  • o
    Sterling
    !
    FBI and CIA have advanced technology, that with phone company, they can track your past history of calls made, on your cell phone.
  • u
    questioner
    !
    @Sterling Don't forget the NSA, signals intelligence is their specialty. An ex-nsa told me they can intercept anything electronic and they have the computers and data mining systems to make the data information. Big Brother IS watching.

    PS - be careful who you insult online, some folk like revenge.
  • o
    Sonny
    !
    I not only don't like the idea that "big brother" is watching, in the form of government agencies. But I used to work for a company that tracked my every move as well...I soon left when I found that out...So I don't like this kind of electronic spying on regular people..At All
  • Thunderchicken
    !
    If you're meaning tracking via company issued devices and on company time, I think it's their prerogative. Mine does this plus has cameras in high security locations. No biggie to me. I sell the company my time and it is theirs to do with what the wish. Now if anyone wants to track my personal movements, no way I’ll stand for that.
  • o
    Sonny
    !
    @Thunderchicken ---That's cool...In my case, however, the fact that they were going to track our each and every move, was not disclosed until after hiring...I just think that if that's what they are going to do...it should be disclosed up front and give the potential employee the right to say "no thanks" corporate big brother...I just won't go for it weather it's government or a private employer...just not my personal "cup of tea"..
  • DerivePI
    !
    I'm gonna have to disagree with the courts on this one. There is an expectation of privacy when it comes to the location information taken from someone's cell phone no matter if the phone is registered or not or if its used on a highway (really - these judges need to go back to elementary school). This is not public information. However, after reading the court case, the information from both phones involved in providing GPS information to the police were authorized to be released by magistrates. ie, the police were authorized to obtain GPS info from them. For my mind that covers the Warrant requirement.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  •
    Lbodine K
    Editor in Chief, Lawyers.com
    !
    Interestingly, the guy who got busted in the new court decision was using a disposable cell phone. He thought no one would know. Too bad for him.
  • Wilberhum
    !
    How will I feel about things that will never happen?
    Sorry, I haven't given it much thought.
    I haven't given much thought to alien inventions from outer space either.
  • o
    RAWalker
    !
    @Wilberhum The link is right there, Wilber. Or do you really believe his friend was "worried about his mental state"? Take note that the IP address from which the "friendly-tip" came from belongs to someone or something that has had quite a number of "friends" with "questionable mental-states". Let's take a look back at this old debate and see if we can find everything that they were fishing for.(NOTE: "An audience-member with a gun" was not one of them):

    http://politix.topix.com/civil-liberties/1513...
  • o
    Sonny
    !
    "Law abiding citizens" --should be the very one's to worry about this...Criminals don't care...they are used to being investigated and watched, and questioned, etc... Who knows what they are going to do with the data they collect on you...In one case in Florida...a private company sold a lot of "collected information on private citizens" to one political party who promptly used it to purge its voter registration list...Law abiding citizens should ALWAYS be wary of stuff like this...Especially if its supporters start of with this phrase..."well, if you are not doing anything wrong, then you don't have anything to worry about...."---Watch out!...LOL!
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  •
    truthsayer
    !
    Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel by George Orwell published in 1949. The book is about a society that is tyrannized by a Party and its totalitarian ideology.It is a world of perpetual war, always present government surveillance, and public mind control, dictated by a political system under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite that persecutes all individualism and independent thinking as thought crimes.Their tyranny is headed by Big Brother.Big Brother and the Party justify their rule in the name of a supposed greater good.An arm of the party is called the Ministry of Truth , which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. They rewrite past newspaper articles and text books so that the historical record always supports the current party line.

    Fiction has and is becoming fact. Keep electing the same party's and the same people with the same mentality and you get there appointed judges to enforce there meaning of what society should be on you. And whats worse is we don't or will not for some reason see whats coming.
  • o
    Sonny
    !
    Can it be spelled out any clearer than the way ---Truthsayer---has laid it out here? I think not...I think he has hit the nail right on the head...
  • TheLoneRanger
    !
    Good summery of the book.

    I got a movie version of the book titled what else but 1984 several years ago for $50. It was released in 1984. It stars John Hurt and Richard Burton and is as nerve wracking as the book.
  • truthsayer
    !
    @TheLoneRanger Seen it. Pretty wild has way to many parallels with real life than it should for fiction. Stole the summery sorry.
  •
    Your_Name_Here
    !
    I have the book sitting here in my library but I do have to disagree with you. It is actually about the United States Government in the 21st century.
  • MongoAPillager
    !
    i used to have a customer worked at Langley(10 years ago mind you)said their cars were tracked even just leaving the building,thru rfd tracking,and that a lot of the cameras had that technology built into them.it 1996 and older cars here that you want to have
  • u
    edindav
    !
    My gitmo suit has already been made to measure BUT its scandalous what governments can do. But who own the politicians? Multi trillion dollar companies. They run your country ,they appoint heads of c.i.a ,nsa( larger than the c.i.a x 10) and the patriot act was just waiting on an attack like 9/11. When your country can have a coup de ta as in 1963 dealey plaza Texas and you do NOTHING about it i think you deserve what you get. Before queen and taxes and all the other rubbish about UK. We've been owned by the same people who own YOU so give me a break.
  • marine1
    !
    I think i like the ACLU on this one, are we no longer innocent ontill proven guilty? More big brother we do not need.
  • mimi57
    !
    I believe we've been being tracked since the early 90's, maybe prior
    to that. I've only had 2 speeding tickets in my life and have never committed a crime, I do not want Big Brother knowing anything about me or my family...I am not on Face-book and do no banking
    or anything personal on the computer...Just Politix. UHOH~ they got me! Joke...joking..
  • Keyjo
    !
    I resent the intrusion and the government spying on citizens. I too, am convinced that this is not exactly something new. I've, at times, been surprised that they didn't kick in my door for more radical opinions I've expressed on other forums.
    Look at the technology they have. Equipped police cars can cruise through parking lots with devices that read license plates and sound an alarm if there are any outstanding warrants or the car is stolen. It they recover your car, you probably don't object.
    We have cameras that issue citations for speeding or red light running.
    It's not just relegated to the government, either.
    Phone companies offer tracking options so you can spy on your kids. The internet offers the same ability to spy on anyone whose phone number you possess.
    My best friend just recently found out that his psycho ex girlfriend has been spying on all of his text messages via an app she got online.
    Newer TV/computer monitors feature built in cameras. Comcast/Infinity boasts that their security system can help you see what's going on in your home when you are away. Guess what!? Via these new cameras in monitors and security systems, they can spy on you anytime you want. Think about some minimum wage, pimple faced 18 year old boy working at the Comcast security being able to see into your house! How many of us have televisions and computers in our bedrooms?
    Of course there is a flip side to this: this same technology can help to find lost/stolen property. It can identify when and where you are in case of an automobile accident. It can help to find people lost in the woods and on mountain sides.
    I don't want to be spied upon. I think that warrants are necessary to listen into phone calls, read texts, or monitor a person 24/7. But I don't think warrants should be required to locate you if you are stranded, lost or injured. Nor to locate stolen property. The question is: can the law provide clear cut distinctions between good spying and bad spying?
  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    That's why I wish SETI was still relavent, spying on the Reticulons would be more interesting, and I'd still get the nifty control room. Probaby a !*^%~% to get a pizza delivered to the Arecibo observatory though.
  • Bobolinsky
    !
    @questioner-- You and I are on the exact same page. What concerns me the most is the ability of government to gather and store info about us en masse, use drones for dragnet-style surveillance, use infrared to look through walls, get "administrative subpoenas" instead of search warrants and seize assets in civil court instead of criminal court. Throw on top of that the government's assaults on private property like Kelo v New London and it's hard not to feel paranoid sometimes ;-)
  • u
    questioner
    !
    @Bobolinsky If government wants to know about someone and don't think it can or is politically acceptable to follow the law they can always use a 'contractor'. It can hide the process. The old saying where there is a will there is a way is coming true. There has always been the will, but the way was limited by technology and distance. Abuse will occur, look at the oprichnina or locally the San Saba Mob for a view of evil. The Right will do it, the Left will do it --- it comes with power not values ... the Constitution tried to put a limit on power, and men have been trying to get around it ever since.
  • R Load more comments...