AT&T has joined the growing legal conversation around the privacy of location data, stating that federal investigators might be required to obtain a warrant before gathering such data in the future, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
While federal investigators are still required to obtain permission from a judge in order to gather the location data of a cellphone customer, the standard of proof is lower than that of a warrant thanks to a 1970s-era Supreme Court ruling which allows the government to collect phone records without probable cause.
This ruling is what AT&T has taken issue with, stating in a recent court-brief:
Nothing in those [prior court] decisions contemplated, much less required, a legal regime that forces individuals to choose between maintaining their privacy and participating in the emerging social, political, and economic world facilitated by the use of today's mobile devices or other location-based services.
While at first this may seem like AT&T has come out in support of customer privacy, it isn't taking a position on whether courts should be required to obtain a warrant, or something less. Instead, it is seeking clarification by higher courts on the types of approval investigators would need to gather cellphone location data.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Reader comments
AT&T: Government may need warrant to obtain location data
Uhh, duh! It's called the law, the constitution! These things shouldn't even be a question.
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Exactly but so many have been willing to sacrifice freedom for security. It's not the government's job to protect us, it's our job to protect ourselves.
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Not if the liberals limit the 2nd amendment.
"may need"
Are you serious? Do they or do they not? Wait, they don't. AT&T has paid off so many politicians to stay alive and kill off competition, it's ridiculous.
They shouldn't be collecting or storing location data in the first place. And in which case there would be nothing to hand over.
Privacy, it is important. Most people don't know how important it is until it is lost and can not be recovered.
Only someone with somthing to hide would say that.
Only someone that has no brain would say THAT.
And you offer no evidence to the contrary of what I said.
No if that logic applied why would the government not reveal everything they do?
The reason people don't want to be tracked is because much of everyday life has been private information (held only by the person) for Centuries if not Millennia.
It is only in the last few decades that personal information has been harvested on such an immense scale and with such carelessness.
At this very moment what I type is being collected by google to be fed through prediction algorithms and uploaded online. The reason many are so apprehensive is because they have almost no control over where their data is sent and stored.
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The emergence of targeted advertising plays a large part in this. A single input to a search engine provides a plethora of information to large corporations, from what I search for to my grammatical skills and vocabulary.
I don't have any massive problem with most data collection, as it is generally innocuous and can actually provide useful services for me.
What I do have a problem with is the casual nature in which the data is handled, being flung from one database to another, never once informing the original creator.
In my opinion corporations need to make it far clearer to the less technologically literate majority what their information is used for, and more importantly the conditions upon which its handling is executed.
A small clause in a list of terms and conditions the length of the encyclopaedia Britannica will not suffice, the information needs go be directly and clearly displayed to the user.
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Note: My previous two comments may make me sound like an obnoxious snob, I would on the contrary endeavour to re-assure you that I am nothing of the sort.
I am in fact a 15 year old expressing my opinions from the comfort of a sofa, all made possible by the amazing advancements made in a variety of industries throughout my short period of existence and prior to it.
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It public knowledge that if you are online that nothing is private.
So you are saying we should protect privacy because its tradition. That is the way things have been done in the past. Shouldn't that apply t gay marriage. "The reason people don't want gay marriage is because all marriages before hves been heterosexual marriage for Centuries if not Millennia.
No, I am not referencing Homan, and in turn the unfortunate topic of "religious rights", I am discussing data protection. If all data was shared there would be no market competition, everybody would have access to everybody else's data, of course this is a hypothetical situation but without the choice to share or retract information from the public eye our existing societal structures would not function as they have in the past.
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Just a correction. Marriage is a licence provided by the state. From what I know of America (U.K here) much of the reason for the uproar against gay marriage is because of the Christian majority rule of America present in the east for centuries and in the west & central America only since the annihilation of the original inhabits ('plains indians') the Christian religion came along with the original immigrants from Europe. Although the constitution favours no particular religion the rights of a person to hold 'religious freedom' were often withheld simply because the Christian majority had no reason to give way to the will of a minority.
It is through this process that gay marriage became effectively 'outlawed' for centuries, more recently under arguments such as 'America is a Christian country' which, even though it may apply to the population is not reflected in the constitution on which American society is supposedly based.
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Hi Dan! You have a cool last name.
Que the "I have nothing to hide" comments
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AT&T is looking into how to monetize this.
"Privacy Surcharge". For just $9.99/month, if the NSA asks for your phone records, we won't buckle like a pilgrim's shoe.
They just want to the law decided. The worst thing the government had done to business is not enforce laws they make. And enforce laws they didn't make. It's not really siding either way, they just want uncle Sam to shit or get off the pot. Sernsv reasonable to me.
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They want explicit clarification so that they can be sure to insulate themselves from class action suits, I would imagine.
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Exactly, they want to be able to cover their asses entirely without breaking (more toeing the line) any laws.
By they, I don't mean everyone in the corporations obviously, a business is not a single entity, they hire people to find the best loopholes, unfortunately for the consumer.
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