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COPS CALL CONGRESS

Police: We Need Everyone's Text Messages Saved For Two Years

Police ask Congress to order text preservation

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by PolitixMayday

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

A group of police officers are asking the Senate to force wireless providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, to keep detailed records of private texts for up to two years. Police say the texts could help with investigations, according to CNET.

Currently, wireless providers aren't required to keep records of private texts, though some do, like Virgin mobile and Verizon. Others, like T-mobile and AT&T, keep only the metadata - the phone numbers associated with a given text and not the content of a text - on file for 90 days to 18 months.

This has led to some confusion in the courts, with one Rhode Island judge expressing her surprise at the vastly different policies between wireless providers.

The police proposal would be tacked on to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act , a 1986 electronic privacy law that's now being updated to reflect current digital concerns. The law as currently written heavily favors privacy rights. CNET reports the text push appears to be an attempt by law enforcement to include one of their priorities as well.

Via CNET
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • BigD1391
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    "protect and serve" right. More like feed me tickets, take my lunch money, and try to invade on my privacy. OUR privacy.
  • WilliamWallace
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    I am a cop and I call BS on this. The cops pushing for this are mentally I'll. I don't know a single officer in my area that would be for this.
  • gregorytoye
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    I agree completely if they can go look at are convos whenever they want why not just ask to use there phone screw it save us some money lol get a warrent
  • marine1
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    @WilliamWallace It's never the officers, it's the political suck azz administration that play these butt kissing games.
  • View all 6 replies >
  • Fishbone345
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix Well, you are uninformed so I forgive you that.
    Go ahead and check voting records to see who voted these things in. Your beloved party led the charge. Truth hurts I know.
  • PoliticalSpice
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix What is it with you? The Bush admin proosed the Patriot Act, Daryl Issa initiated the Real ID act, they were voted into law by both parties of congress. This is one reason why I disregard the economic/tax/regulatory cplaints made by conservatives. I know tgat reaching agreement is useless. Repubs are always right. So when W creates an unfunded prescripsion plan that is fine, but as soon as Obama does a health care measure it is wrong. If W wants to illegally spy on citizens fine. If Obama were to do it you would be foaming at the mouth. Three thousand people die in 9-11, you can not blame W if ignoring intel., a few diplomats doe in Lybia and its a scandal. You can maintain this double standard if you want, but then who are you to complain when others disregard your objections to policies we want. Since there is no uniform standard, no rules that apply to both, you lose the right to demand fairness when those you oppose have the upper hand.
  • View all 8 replies >
  • blue_yahoo
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    @woodtick57 The author of the words pays the service provider to send the words. This does not make the words the providers property. The issue is that the words are transmitted over the airwaves with is public domain (at least in the past it has been looked upon in this way). Things have changed drastically lately and now comes the fight over how to regulate it and what is private or not private.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    @blue_yahoo

    So you, on your own accord, paid a private company to send your text over the public domain airwaves and you expect them to be private to you? Check your cell phone service contract. The record of your calls is their property.
  • Denizen_Kate
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    According to the providers, they are, but few bother to read the fine print of their provider's privacy policy. This is one of the reasons I stick with T-Mobile - they keep a record of a text being sent and the phone numbers involved, but the actual text is none of their business. IMO, keeping a record of my calls and text messages is already an invasion of my privacy.
  • Politic-n
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    Both political parties are sailing the Constitution down the river by supporting things like Agenda 21 (supported by both political parties), recent additions to NDAA (Democrats), Patriot Act (Republicans and Democrats). etc etc To trust one side over the other is playing into their game of divide and conquer. Read Orwell's "1984" for some basic insight into their tactics.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
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    MRMacrum
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    That the texts are even saved period ought to be of concern. But the larger picture I think is mandating that storage by law. Smacks of serious Constitutional compromising.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
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    John_Matrix
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    @Fishbone345

    I am probably paranoid, but I consider just being cautious to be that way. History is full of far too many examples of those in power getting a foothold and then exploiting it to seize complete power.
  • DerivePI
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    Texts should be treated as phone conversations. No warrant, no tapping, no recording. The law should go so far as to require the deletion of the texts from cell phone data bases. Considering the rampant theft of credit card numbers, I do not see phone companies as security geniuses. To push the issue, the law should institute a $100 per text fine for stolen messages up to $100,000 per user.
  • mimi57
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    When the Left takes over and we truly become Communist, there will be no such thing as privacy...I don't know
    why people are surprised...Communists don't have Freedoms, only the Government has freedoms..what is so
    hard to understand about that???...
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    woodtick57
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    It was 'the left' that recently gathered phone records from cell phone service providers? Seems i recall that being a republican administration that did that.
  • mimi57
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    @woodtick57 No, Cops to Congress... "WE need text messages saved for two years". Why has this not come up before? If it did, I never heard of it under a Republican administration...
  • Dan_Tien
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    There is no real privacy now. Thanks to private industry (not communism) it is possible to track you down through your post (Warren, OH?) and find out everything about you. Thanks to the Patriot Act , if you are somehow considered a threat to national security, no warrant would be necessary to keep you under surveillance. You could even be watched with thermal imaging from a satellite in orbit through the roof of your house. If your activities engendered enough suspicion, you could be arrested and detained indefinitely without being charged with any crime and without even having the right to know why. If you died in custody for some reason, the only ones available to give information about your demise would be your captors. Want to tell us more about how much more bad it will get when we "become Communist"?
  • mimi57
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    @Dan_Tien No, I'd suggest talking to someone or researching what it's truly like living under Communist Rule, it's a whole lot worse than that...
  • Dan_Tien
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    @mimi57 My Russian language instructor was born in Bylorussia under the Soviet system, my Chinese language instructor was born near Shanghai and my wushu instructor was born in Beijing. I've talked with them a bit about living under communism. Have you ever read any books by Franz Kafka?
  • View all 24 replies >
  • DogLady_1
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    “Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.”-John Perry Barlow

    “When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.”-David Brin
  • Dan_Tien
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    Full time bad guys already know how to stay under the radar.

    So some police want to spend lots of money saving the PRIVATE texts of everybody, just in case they MIGHT be able to get a warrant to search through them to find clear and relevant evidence about crimes that may be committed? R U ^????
  • u
    classychazy
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    This is a bunch of crap! A text should be treated the same as a phone call. You want to have access to what is being said on one one end or the other then get a warrant! We lost so many rights with the Patriot Act when is enough, enough!
  • WMCOL
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    Police state activity...thanks, but no thanks. Police suppression of freedom to express political, social, and economic views has already put this nation in 50th place in the world. The USA has long not been the 'land of the free'.

    We must stand up to our elected leaders and defeat this attack on our freedoms and liberty. It is but one more cut to bring about our death by a thousand cuts.

    Tell your representatives you oppose ANY and all legal acts requiring the saving of text messages, by consumer, companies, or any other entity.

    http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
  • jessejaymes
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    How does it feel to live in a police state? A place where the cops can't or won't do anything of substance about gangs but they will be reading your text messages. Wonderful.
  • o
    Sharpshooter
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    Not a surprise to again see a Government body seeking more power over the serfs.

    Of course, since we have lots of people who argue that the Second Amendment only protects weaponry existing in 1787; I don't expect to see any of THEM looking for protection of the First or Fourth Amendments... Jefferson and Madison didn't have text messaging, they had to do it the old fashioned way, on the phone.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
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    Cool_voter
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    @Sharpshooter 40 years.
    That's how long those guys were dead before the phone was invented.
    About 40 years.
    Explain yourself.
    Fox News lies
  • View all 22 replies >
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    Republican5001
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    I sleep well under the blanket of freedom someone else is providing and do not not question the manner in which he provides it. Thank you to the authorities for enforcing our laws against any and all who think they can freely express themselves without recourse or repercussion. More importantly thank you for doing a job that most don't and won't.
  • u
    Belin
    !
    My texts are nobodies business! I don't do anything illegal and never have! My husband and I have used texts to "play" with each other. We are a married couple! It is no ones rights to be able to see or read our private messages! We each have deleted them immediately aftet so that our children don't accidentally see anything. He also has some hornball friends that send him unsuitable things. He deleted them immediatly also and has gotten most of them to stop. A law abiding citizen should not be under watch by authorities! What we text with each other, family members and friends is nobodies business and also falls under free speech. We don't text while driving and connect our phones to our cars if someone calls while we are driving. This is just another freedom being taken from us. We already have drones flying over our country. That is just flat spying on our own citizens. I don't know how President Obama got away with doing that!
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