SAN FRANCISCO — Cellphone carriers last year answered at least 1.1 million requests from law enforcement agencies seeking information on caller locations, text messages and other data for use in investigations, according to reports from the carriers.þþMost of the requests were for information from a specific customer account. But law enforcement agencies also received information from 9,000 so-called tower dumps, in which the agencies were granted access to data from all the phones that connected to a cell site during a specified period of time.þþThe cellphone carriers’ reports, which came in response to a congressional inquiry, underscored the law enforcement agencies’ strong reliance on wireless phone records. The carriers are shown to turn over records thousands of times a day in response to police emergencies, subpoenas and other requests.þþSenator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, requested the reports from seven carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile US. Mr. Markey conducted a similar audit last year as a member of the House, seeking information from carriers about law enforcement requests for 2011.þþIn 2011, the carriers complied with 1.3 million requests from law enforcement agencies. That number is not directly comparable with 2012’s total of 1.1 million requests because Sprint, the third-largest American carrier, did not answer all of Senator Markey’s questions.þþSenator Markey said he planned to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would provide stronger privacy protections for consumers, including the requirement of a warrant for police to get cellphone location information from a carrier as proof that it would help uncover evidence of a crime.þþ“Congress needs to ensure that our laws keep up with technology, including how law enforcement handles and disposes of this sensitive mobile phone information,” Senator Markey said in a phone interview.þþThe wide-ranging nature of government surveillance programs, many of which have been revealed by documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, has nudged some lawmakers to reassess the nation’s privacy protections. Last week, it was reported that the N.S.A. tracks the location and movements of hundreds of millions of cellphones outside the United States, according to some of the documents leaked by Mr. Snowden.þþTechnology companies like Apple and Google have recently started publishing so-called transparency reports on the government and law enforcement requests that they receive, but the carriers have not released similar reports. The carriers’ responses to Senator Markey about law enforcement requests are the closest thing yet to a transparency report.þþThe carriers sometimes resist requests from law enforcement, according to the reports. Reasons for rejection include when a request does not fully comply with the law — for example, when a signed court order is required instead of a subpoena. Verizon said in many instances law enforcement sought information that the carrier did not have.þþBut the carriers’ responses to Senator Markey’s inquiries also suggest that data-sharing policies are inconsistent among carriers. Some carriers, like AT&T and T-Mobile US, require a warrant for law enforcement to gain access to a person’s current location data. But Verizon Wireless and Cricket say they cannot provide real-time location information at all.þþThe carriers also retain the location data collected from cell sites for varying periods of time. While most of the companies retain records for six to 18 months, AT&T holds them for five years.þþSome types of content, like text messages or voice mail messages that are older than 180 days, are provided to law enforcement by AT&T with a subpoena, but not a warrant.þþThe carriers were also shown to comply with tower dumps at 9,000 cell sites, a small percentage of the 302,000 cell sites that were operational last year. But Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, who reviewed the carriers’ responses, said the number of tower dumps was significant.þþ“Cell towers are handling hundreds of thousands of calls at any given time, getting personal info on hundreds of thousands of people for extended periods of time in order for police to gather information on one person,” Mr. Calabrese said.þþ“What I was really struck by in looking at this stuff is the very powerful informants our cellphones make,” he said. “They know so much about us and they can share so much about us — our texts, where we’re going online, our physical movements. It’s a host of information that clearly law enforcement is very aware of and actively accessing.”þþThe carriers devote a significant amount of resources to dealing with requests from law enforcement. For example, AT&T said in its response that it had a staff of 100 full-time employees working seven days a week handling responses. It received $10.3 million in reimbursement for law enforcement responses last year.þþSenator Markey said the legislation he planned to propose would require the Federal Communications Commission to limit the amount of time carriers could hold on to customers’ personal information. The senator said he also hoped to create a method to narrow down the information that police collected from a cell tower when doing so-called dumps.þþAnother piece of the legislation would require law enforcement officials to submit a signed and sworn statement whenever they received information from carriers in the case of emergency circumstances, to increase accountability for the requests. Senator Markey said he also wanted law enforcement to write routine reports disclosing the nature and volume of their requests.þþ
Source: NY Times
