DOJ, Cops: U.S. law should require logs of your text messages

U.S. law should require logs of your text messages

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to capture and store Americans' confidential text messages, according to a proposal that will be presented to a congressional panel today.

The law enforcement proposal would require wireless providers to record and store customers' SMS messages -- a controversial idea akin to requiring them to surreptitiously record audio of their customers' phone calls

Source (CNET)

Now, this should not surprise (and does not surprise me coming from cops/the gov't wanting to have their eyes everywhere and make their jobs as easy as possible) many of us in the slightest, but how far will they go to see that legislation is, in fact, passed?

But what kind of police state, big brother crap is this?

Right now, texts are saved only for a selected period of time, depending on the carrier, and LE are required to have a warrant—or subpoena—to access certain information.

But to have EVERY text EVERY person sends stored (or direct messages online) is a frightening invasion of privacy. Some will argue, "well, if you have nothing to hide." I will not even argue against such an absurd statement.

In addition,

CNET reported yesterday that the Justice Department is proposing that any ECPA changes expand government surveillance powers over e-mail messages, Twitter direct messages, and Facebook direct messages in some ways, while limiting it in others.

[emphasis added]



Where is privacy?

A Google rep says it very well:

“There is no compelling policy or legal rationale” for online documents having less privacy protection

(Source AJC)

Police say criminal investigations are “being frustrated” because companies don’t retain information, or don’t retain it long enough. “Billions of texts are sent every day, and some surely contain key evidence about criminal activity,” Richard Littlehale from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation told Congress.

Source (AJC)

How likely or long will it be not that the evidence will be there should it be needed in an investigation, but that they be able to scour the texts or online correspondence simply to look for criminal activity, whereupon they will then have the evidence they need? (likely under the guise of "terrorism" or combating criminal conspiracies)

I was reading a (very) local paper the other day, and came across something interesting: There was a local shooting after a drug deal went bad, and after the first days of the investigation additional charges were filed against half a dozen people. Of the additional charges: "use of a communication device to facilitate a drug deal."

Now, it's not just engaging in a drug deal, or criminal behavior in general, but the use of the device itself during the behavior is a separate charge in itself.

Some might compare it to the use of a firearm during commission of a felony, or other similar laws, but how much of a slippery slope is this? I had no idea such a law existed.

How long before, "use of a motor vehicle for or during [X]," etc?

Will cops soon be able to, legally, during traffic stops look through texts for evidence of criminal activity?

Big brother is coming.

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EDIT TO ADD: The point is NOT about texting or other digital means as a secure means of communication in itself, especially when criminal activity is involved or when the criminal enterprise is on a scale large enough to warrant surveillance such as that the communication would NOT be safe by a reasonable person (such as planning a terrorist attack, overthrow of government, planning a heist, etc).

The point IS about the information contained in personal and private texts and other digital communications as being safe from intrusion—simply because it's private correspondence—BY GOVERNMENT.

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reply to post by Liquesence


The government has no business to any of this information. Though I will say that my friends and I discuss more sensitive topics face to face and not through a phone anyways. I mean the NSA can already track you through your cell phone's gps device.

reply to post by Liquesence


The NSA already does this. At least that's what I've heard.

Am I against it? Of course.
Have I ever thought text messages are a safe form of communication? Of course not.
Texts are only useful for me to arrange face to face meetings for sensitive matters.

Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
reply to post by Liquesence

 

The NSA already does this. At least that's what I've heard.

Well, then heck, why not go ahead and give the locals cops the ability to more easily access all that info, too.

Since the NSA likely does.

#sarcasm

That said, the NSA deals largely with..national security issues. Why do local cops need to have access to and have the ability to scour this data?

Originally posted by grainofsand
Am I against it? Of course.
Have I ever thought text messages are a safe form of communication? Of course not.
Texts are only useful for me to arrange face to face meetings for sensitive matters.

Of course no type of communication is completely safe. I think the bigger issue is that the access is there for ALL types of "crimes," as petty as those crimes might be, and the charge happiness of LE on even the smallest "crimes."

If you are daft enough to use text messages which are akin to send post cards for confidential details then you're just in Darwin territory if you think its confidential

If you need it to be confidential then you assume the method of communication has already been breached and that both sides have the ability to understand the transmitted message

Don't forget that every data line entering the US has a NSA probe on it especially the underwater ones as until its on American actual soil your data is open to them so all it takes is a reroute of all text messages via a link that leaves/re-enters the USA and job done its been read by a NSA dork

I don't use texting very much.....hell, if it's not the wife I rarely get a phone call, but if this sort of crap does go through I will simply turn the phone off.

take the cell phone...I don't need it.

reply to post by Liquesence


Sigh.. Im just gonna move to Russia.
Its funny, I read an article about how the USA and Russia have "flip flopped"
We are becoming, what the USSR was 30-50 years ago and Russia is becoming what we were during the same time period.
I started to wonder if this was by design.

Any person in the United States of America who takes treason against my rights, should be dealt in the same order of fashion, that Thomas Jefferson dealt with on the White House lawn. Citizens of the United States should not have to put up with the crap. Our founding fathers of the United States founded what we needed not to embellish it.

Why don't they just put implants in our brains to monitor our thoughts?

There has been a relentless attack lately on our rights and personal privacy.

At what point do we stand up and say enough? What will it take?

'Those that would trade their liberty for security, lose both and deserve neither'

reply to post by Liquesence


Well they soon will have access when that data capture center in Utah is finished. Its supposed to be one million square feet and will have enough hard drive space to handle 100+ years of all of our calls, emails, texts, FB, twitter, everything!!! And then the info will be available to NSA, CIA, FBI, local LEO's....etc...

reply to post by TriForce


I'm not sure it's by design that the roles are flipping, but it's certainly by design that the US is becoming a more government-surveilled Orwellian state, to be sure. I think that after WWII authoritarianism was seen as successful way to centralize and maintain power, but it had to be done covertly, under the radar, under the guise of freedom.

I think it's been a work in progress for a long time.

I think that is exactly what is happening. Orwell was a prophet, and saw it too.

reply to post by daryllyn


Minority Report + 1984, soon they just might not need to read our thoughts. They just read our autonomic responses to basic stimuli to determine what we are "thinking." Why did your pupils suddenly dilate when you say a LEO? Why did you heart rate increase? They're talking about implementing these things to fight terrorism (mainly in public transpo/airports), so who's to say it won't become even more common for "singling out."

"Why're you acting so nervous, ma'am? Step over here, please."

And then we have the stop and frisk policy in NYC.

Heard this on the radio this morning. Can't help but wonder if a GPG app will emerge with public key sharing on Facebook.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
I don't use texting very much.....hell, if it's not the wife I rarely get a phone call, but if this sort of crap does go through I will simply turn the phone off.

take the cell phone...I don't need it.

I wish I didn't "need" a cell phone, or texting. Mine is split between correspondence with friends, and business. In fact, in my industry a cell phone is a necessity, and texting is a reliable and easy means to communication in real time with out the need to occupy ears when one has to hear other things immediately through an ear piece.

Not that I'm engaging in anything illegal, or mention i have done anything that *is* illegal, but i dont want the whole history of everything i have ever texted to anyone (especially a late night drunken text, ) stored for LEO. It's none of their business.

But maybe these things will eventually, alas, come with the territory.

One would think the ATS community would actually care about current proposals that would require carriers to maintain logs of every single text message Americans send.

Guess not. That's a shame.

This could prove disastrous to the economy, if more people react similar to me. I just cancelled the unlimited text services, on the 7 mobile lines, which I pay the monthly charges for. I also blocked the ability for each line to send and receive texts.

Capture that!

Originally posted by tamusan
This could prove disastrous to the economy, if more people react similar to me. I just cancelled the unlimited text services, on the 7 mobile lines, which I pay the monthly charges for. I also blocked the ability for each line to send and receive texts.

Capture that!

Well, I would probably wait until it passes, if it does.

Or course, AFTER if passes (if it does) people will be up in arms about it but it will be too late.

It's still only a proposal, but people should act against it now.

Pay attention, people.

Of course, the constitutionality of it is another matter that I would like to see addressed.

This is no good. The 4th Amendment, hell the entire Bill of Rights mean nothing to the DOJ and LEOs now days. Police already search through people's phones when they do their stop and pat searches.

The US is lacking people to stand up against this kind of tyranny. If we are not careful the US will slip further into a police state.

On a side note, on shows like COPS and the DEA show, it seems they only arrest poor people. Especially the DEA show. Freedom is lost in the US and I pray something is done about it before it is forgotten,

This would be akin to opening every piece of paper mail sent by post, photocopying it, storing it and then delivering it to your address. How absurd it sounds when I think of it that way!

Originally posted by TheOtter
This would be akin to opening every piece of paper mail sent by post, photocopying it, storing it and then delivering it to your address. How absurd it sounds when I think of it that way!

The logistics of this kind of data mining or mind boggling. If this gets passed anyone want to guess who will pay for it?