Communications of the ACM
Cell Service Providers Are Liberally Peddling Your Private Data
"Some service providers are charging fees in return for providing their subscribers' personal information without telling the subscribers," says Cornell University Professor Stephen Wicker. "Consumers should be annoyed and alarmed."
Credit: Cornell University
Federal data privacy laws are obsolete and should be reformed, says Stephen B. Wicker, Cornell University professor of electrical and computer engineering. Wicker conducts research on wireless information networks, and focuses on networking technology, law, sociology, and how regulation can affect privacy and speech rights. He is the author of "Cellular Convergence and the Death of Privacy," a book to be published by Oxford University Press at the end of 2012.
"Cellular telephony is a surveillance technology — and despite the hundreds of millions of Americans who use cell phones every day, we still have out-of-date and obsolete federal data privacy laws," Wicker says. "When powered on, the cellular handset periodically transmits a registration message that allows the service provider to track the location of the user. While useful for routing incoming calls to the handset, the location data has proven irresistible to law enforcement as a means for tracking individuals.
"Last August, the American Civil Liberties Union submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to over 380 state and local law enforcement agencies regarding their tracking of cell phone users," Wicker says. "Over 200 agencies responded, and the results were alarming both in the extent of the surveillance and the variability in supervision by the judicial system.
“A Justice Department document obtained by the ACLU shows that service providers retain location data for at least a year, and in some cases, appear to do so indefinitely," he says.
"The situation has been made worse as this data has become a commodity. Some service providers are charging fees in return for providing their subscribers' personal information without telling the subscribers about the transactions. All consumers should be annoyed — and alarmed."
"With regard to judicial supervision, only a small minority of the police departments indicated that they requested a warrant before requesting and then obtaining the data," Wicker says. "In recent litigation, federal courts have been divided over the actual requirements, with some requiring a warrant and others not. We must reform our data privacy laws."
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