James Clark for Mobistealth looks at the dangers
People are slowly realising that mobile phones are becoming tools for surveillance. The American Civil Liberties Union has realised this fact; hence they have been engaged with law enforcement agencies in investigating if agencies are tracking mobile phones to monitor the activities of users. The Union has been joined by like-minded organisations to pursue this issue. They claim that some of the agencies don’t even have the necessary warrants to keep track of mobile phones. These actions jeopardise the US 4th Amendment, which guarantees US citizens protection against unreasonable searches.Warrantless mobile phone tracking – a norm
Law enforcement agencies have revealed that most of the time, they do not require legal permission to monitor activities of suspects through tracking their mobile phones.
Therefore, mobile phone tracking is being increasingly used by the police and other law enforcing agencies to control crime in their respective jurisdictions which makes mobile phone monitoring software a secondary issue.
Users can inform themselves of the issues and reasons for mobile phone tracking by reading the information published and distributed by the mobile phone companies in their catalogues.
The privacy details of the phone company and general privacy policies made by the US government can be understood through company literature.
The 4th Amendment
The Supreme Court of the USA has been discussing the 4th Amendment – the protector of privacy. According to the amendment, the police are required to obtain a search warrant before tracking the mobile phones and other mobile devices of the suspect.
The Amendment requires the authorities to keep breaches of privacy to the reasonable level – actually barring the police authorities from recording phone conversations without a warrant, for example.
However, a call log can be obtained from the mobile phone company, after a court grants a subpoena based on the requirements of the case.
The 4th Amendment has now become a joke after the mobile phone companies have allegedly agreed to give out information on customers for profit.
Compromising customers’ privacy for cash!
It is because of these payments that the whole scenario of privacy protection policy has become a joke. Mobile phone companies are reneging on their customer relations ethics whilst allegedly providing information to law enforcement agencies in exchange for money.
Keeping in view the sorry state of privacy protection, Republican Congressman Edward J. Markey – the co-chairman of Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, has asked the mobile phone operators to submit a report on the amount of money they have gathered by providing private information on customers to the law enforcement agencies.
A saviour for the 4th Amendment
Although mobile phone tracking helps to reduce the time it takes to catch criminals and also helps to reduce crime rate, the use of mobile phone monitoring software without a warrant from legal authorities does indeed jeopardise the security of the common citizen.
The judicial system needs to be improved and to take a firm stand on this issue. The most important thing is that the ambiguities need to be cleared up – such as the level of emergency of the situation which does not require a warrant.
Author Biog
James Clark has been in the business of providing quality information on mobile phone monitoring for a while now. He’s an expert on all things spyware, but his main forte is Mobile Phone Spy Software which has captured the interest of many. James blogs for Mobistealth which offers mobile phone spy software for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Nokia and Windows Mobile phones.
