Reading a recent article in the Seatle P.I. about the police out there tracking missing people using cell phone records without a warrant. The mission of the police, in the cases discussed, was all good but the article brings up some interesting questions of legality and privacy and it suggests a few more.
A quick scan with Google reveals that this is quite a wide-spread phenomenon and that polices forces at all government levels -- local, state and federal -- all across the country are using this technique for finding "missing" people.
The article that I mentioned (and linked to) above asks about the general matters of the legality of these searches. It points out, quite correctly, that these searches were for good and, in at least one case but probably many, thank goodness that they did.
But it also mentions that just one mobile system carrier, Verizon, received "about 26,000" of these warrantless cell phone data requests last year. The Google search revealed other versions of these numbers but also revealed other instances where cell phone locations are divulged without a warrant.
Now, again, these instances that we read of are all for the good. Only a few seem to tread near the line of constitutional impropriety. But two things loom out here. One is that, as this article and others note, there are no rules or guidelines for neither the police nor the telephone companies in these "good searches". The other thing, not asked in the articles, is what about the searches that we haven't heard about? If just Verizon has fielded of these good warrantless 26,000 requests in one year and that doesn't count that a cell phone's location is disclosed each time it dials 911 and it doesn't count the undisclosed number of times such things are done under warrant -- well, it would be just foolish to assume that a "good" search is never actually for something that should be done with a warrant.
Obviously this technology can be a wonderful help in saving lives and thwarting crime and these are things that we want, but lets be very clear about how and when we want it and when it can be used -- either for or against us as citizens.
It's time to ask -- or require -- that your representatives do something about this vacuum in the law. Don't throw the baby Liberty out with the dishwater, "safety".
