There have been some important developments in my paranoia-fueled obsession over just who has access to the location information that modern cell phones are constantly sending out into the ether. Under e-911 legislation here in the U.S., all cell-phones must be capable of pin-pointing location within a certain range (I think it's 150 yards, but certainly don't quote me on that -- though if you'd really like to know I know I have the figure somewhere in my notes.) And once the new iPhone comes out on Friday, woowee -- with enhanced GPS, you're pretty much carry around a tracking beacon in your pocket. Between cell tower triangulation, wifi network info, and honest-to-goodness GPS, AT&T is pretty much going to know which comfy couch you're sitting in at your favorite coffee shop.

Which is all fine and dandy -- and really, a testament to the amazingly powerful and relatively affordable personal technologies we can all get access to today, god bless America -- expect for the fact that there is no real control over who can get access to those records and for what reason. This is one of the many legal areas where the software has yet to catch up with the hardware. And all too often, the question of location records gets conflated with call records, which are an entirely different story. With call records, I'm largely in control -- I know that if I want to go commit a crime somewhere and not get caught, all I need to do is not ring up a friend in the process. The creation of location records, though, is a a constant background process. It takes quite a tech-savvy consumer to really make an informed choice about whether it makes sense to turn off your phone's location tools altogether.

Thankfully, I'm not alone with my fears. EFF and the ACLU have filed suit against the Justice Department concerning how U.S. attorneys offices are accessing cell phone location records. The two groups want to know how often that data is requested by government officials from telecom companies without the establishment of probably cause. Let's hope the suit goes some of the distance towards clearing up the law around who can know where we are when and why.

Jul. 9, '08
iPhone, location awareness, telecom policy