In a press release issued Thursday, Senator Edward Markey announced that he sent letters to eight major cell phone service providers – including T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and AT&T – asking what information the government collects from them as well as how the government collects this information. In 2012, Markey conducted his first investigation of governmental cell phone data collection and consequently became the first member of Congress to do so. He found that, in 2011, wireless carriers received a total of 1.3 million requests from law enforcement agencies for cell phone data. This time around, Markey is asking wireless carriers for even more details on the information requested by law enforcement agencies.
Specifically, Markey asked for the total number of requests received from law enforcement agencies in 2012, any compensations the companies received in return for their compliances, as well as the number of requests received for the following: geolocation of device, call detail records, text message content, voicemail, cell tower dumps, wiretapping, subscriber information, and data requests. He also asked which requests came under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which essentially prevents recipients of this type of request to talk about its details.
Markey serves in the U.S. House of Representatives on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as its subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. Needless to say, he has an established interest in internet privacy and technology security, and even sent a letter on Wednesday to the Federal Trade Commission about Facebook’s privacy policy changes. As Markey notes, cell data collection by governmental agencies is a kind of double-edged sword, helping the government gain leads into preventing potential national threats while also imposing upon innocent citizen’s constitutional rights:
“America recently has come to understand just how pervasive collection of mobile phone information is, even of innocent individuals unconnected to illegal activity. While mobile phone data should be accessible for appropriate law enforcement purposes, it is important that protections are in place for innocent Americans. There are legal, constitutional and privacy implications of sharing consumers’ mobile telephone information. We need to know what is being collected and the legal authorities by which law enforcement is requesting the records, possibly of innocent people being swept up as part of these digital dragnets. I look forward to receiving the responses from the wireless carriers and continuing this important investigation.”
Senator Markey continues to keep watch over governmental surveillance of technology in order to protect individual rights, an important but difficult task, as protection of the individual is easily lost in the face of technological proliferation.
