Cellphone Carriers Account For 85 Percent Of Wiretap Authorizations

Cellphone carriers report that local, state and federal law enforcement have made more than 1.3 million demands for cellphone subscriber information in the last past year. The statistics, reported in the Washington Post yesterday, show that 85 percent of wiretap authorizations are now for cellphones. The information came in response to a request from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) about “cell tower” dumps, in which law enforcement demand data on cellphone users near a cell tower during a specific time period. “We cannot allow privacy protections to be swept aside with the sweeping nature of these information requests, especially for innocent consumers,” Markey said in a statement. “Law enforcement agencies are looking for a needle, but what are they doing with the haystack?”