THE GOVERNMENT AND POLICE
ROUTINELY VIOLATING AMERICANS' PRIVACY RIGHTS THROUGH WARRENTLESS CELLPHONE TRACKING AND TEXT MESSAGE HACKING
YOUR CELL PHONE COMPANY IS SELLING YOUR TEXT MESSAGES, IP SESSIONS, PICTURES, LOCATION, ETC ETC.ETC. TO THE POLICE AND GOVERNMENT

- ACLU REPORT -   "The government has no right to pick through your private information just because it's technologically possible." Even if you were "doing nothing wrong" and were "no threat whatsoever," once the government has the info about you, it can hold that information on you forever." Your phone records are your records, and the information they reveal can be strikingly personal. You shouldn't be kept in the dark about who has access to them and for how long." Of all of the recent technological developments that have expanded the surveillance capabilities of law enforcement  and government agencies at the expense of individual privacy, perhaps the most powerful is cell phone location tracking and text message hacking. And now, after an unprecedented records request by ACLU affiliates around the country, we know that this method is widespread and most often used without adequate regard for constitutional protections, judicial oversight, or accountability. All cell phones register their location with cell phone networks several times a minute, and this function cannot be turned off while the phone is getting a wireless signal. The threat to personal privacy presented by this technology is breathtaking.To know a person's location over time is to know a great deal about who a person is and what he or she values. The government should have to obtain a warrant based upon probable cause before hacking and tracking your cell phone. That is what is necessary to protect Americans' privacy, and it is also what is required under the Constitution.What we have learned is disturbing. While virtually all of the over 200 police departments that responded to our request said they track cell phones, only a tiny minority reported consistently obtaining a warrant and demonstrating probable cause to do so.   READ ENTIRE ARTICLE
Police use various methods to track cell phones. Most commonly, law enforcement agencies obtain cell phone records about one person from a cell phone carrier. However, some police departments have even purchased their own cell tracking technology. 

PHONE COMPANIES GETTING RICH SELLING YOUR PRIVACY TO THE COPS
The Police and Government  Paying  Big Bucks To Carriers: 
T-Mobile charges law enforcement a flat fee of $500 per target. Sprint Nextel requires police pay $400 per market area as well as a $10 per day fee, capped at $2,000. AT&T charges a $325 activation fee, plus $5 per day for data and $10 for audio. Verizon charges a $50 administrative fee plus $700 per month, per target.
Data requests for voicemail or text messages cost extra. AT&T demands $150 for access to a targets voicemail, while Verizon charges $50 for access to text messages. Sprint offers the most detailed breakdown of fees for various kinds of data on a phone, asking $120 for pictures or video, $60 for email, $60 for voice mail and $30 for text messages.
All four telecom firms also offer so-called tower dumps that allow police to see the numbers of every user accessing a certain cell tower over a certain time at an hourly rate. AT&T charges $75 per tower per hour, with a minimum of two hours. Verizon charges between $30 and $60 per hour for each cell tower. T-Mobile demands $150 per cell tower per hour, and Sprint charges $50 per tower, seemingly without an hourly rate.
For location data, the carrier firms offer automated tools that let police track suspects in real time. Sprint charges $30 per month per target to use its L-Site program for location tracking. AT&T's E911 tool costs $100 to activate and then $25 a day. T-Mobile charges a much pricier $100 per day.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

"The government has no right to pick through your private information just because that's technologically possible," says American Civil Liberties Union policy counsel and former FBI agent Mike German. "The laws are now so lax that they can."


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