Sprint Feeds Customer GPS Data to Law Enforcement over a Web Portal

[BIGUN 1,490]

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Sprint Fed Customer GPS Data to Cops over 8 Million Times

Through a mix of documents unearthed by Freedom of Information Act requests and the aforementioned recording, Soghoian describes how "the government routinely obtains customer records from ISPs detailing the telephone numbers dialed, text messages, emails and instant messages sent, web pages browsed, the queries submitted to search engines, and geolocation data, detailing exactly where an individual was located at a particular date and time."

The fact that federal, state, and local law enforcement can obtain communications "metadata"—URLs of sites visited, e-mail message headers, numbers dialed, GPS locations, etc.—without any real oversight or reporting requirements should be shocking, but it isn't. The courts ruled in 2005 that law enforcement doesn't need to show probable cause to obtain your physical location via the cell phone grid. All of the aforementioned metadata can be accessed with an easy-to-obtain pen register/trap & trace order. But given the volume of requests, it's hard to imagine that the courts are involved in all of these.

Soghoian's lengthy post makes at least two important points, the first of which is that there are no reliable statistics on the real volume and scope of government surveillance because such numbers are either not published (sometimes in violation of the legally mandated reporting requirements) or they contain huge gaps. The second point is that the lack of reporting makes it difficult to determine just how involved the courts actually are in all of this, in terms of whether these requests are all backed by subpoenas.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/12/sprint-fed-customer-gps-data-to-leos-over-8-million-times.ars

I was a Sprint customer for a little while and I remember reading the Privacy Policy. On the customer end; they make it sound as though they would cooperate with Law Enforcement Officials when the rule of law is applied/presented. I know it didn't say anything about opening a web portal for them to surf our surfing at leisure. Now, I'm all for law and order... but, what I am not for is indiscriminate invasion of privacy.

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"[M]y major concern is the volume of requests. We have a lot of things that are automated but that's just scratching the surface. One of the things, like with our GPS tool. We turned it on the web interface for law enforcement about one year ago last month, and we just passed 8 million requests. So there is no way on earth my team could have handled 8 million requests from law enforcement, just for GPS alone. So the tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement. They also love that it is extremely inexpensive to operate and easy, so, just [because of] the sheer volume of requests they anticipate us automating other features, and I just don't know how we'll handle the millions and millions of requests that are going to come in."

Just say, "No?"
Just say, "Have you got a warrant/subpoena?"

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[AggieDave 6]

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Just say, "Have you got a warrant/subpoena?"

Even when trying to get information to help someone, not make a case against someone, I know that T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon all say "sorry, you have to have a warrant." The only time I know that it is different is GPS locating for 911 hangups.

As for Sprint, I honestly can't remember, but I've never seen any sort of super-secret all telling website. Not that it couldn't exist.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[BIGUN 1,490]

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The only time I know that it is different is GPS locating for 911 hangups.

Hey, Bro... Understandable. That could be a reason.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.