Our privacy is at risk with growing cell phone use and a lack of established regulations. Cell phones, or more specifically smart phones, have all become part of our daily lives in such a way that they are now personal extensions of ourselves. With cell phone applications and touch screen devices bursting at everyone's personal seams, is our privacy at risk more than ever before? Can our location be tracked? Can our action history be monitored? Can our personal info and data be tracked? The answer is yes. With global positioning technology surrounding the world with its unlimited tracking capabilities, the more important question is whether or not America's justice system has set up regulations protecting our individual privacy rights. Has it been ruled illegal for others to track your location via your own cell phone? Are there any laws punishing criminals making use of your cell phone's data? The answer is no.
Fox News discusses the lack of regulation
regarding cell phone privacy.
Information from our cell phone can easily be accessed by anyone!
When asked to discuss government regulation regarding individual
privacy of personal digital technology, such as cell phones, the discussion is
void. There is currently no definitive law regulating privacy through the
medium of a cell phone, and it is a problem that must be addressed. Without a
concrete form of regulation, even the government has the ability to track its
citizens. As the FOX video quotes from Marc Rotenberg, executive director of
the electronic privacy information center, "we have privacy laws for
telephone communications, electronic mail messaging, but we really don't have
modern privacy laws to address some of these modern services and new
technologies". Cell phone privacy laws are grey areas that require
clarification. Without clarification, cell phone user's location and data are legally
accessible to anyone out there, including the government. As noted by Joseph A.
Tomaszewski of the Daily Sundial, simply having your phone on allows your
location to be registered by cell towers, and people such as the police are
gaining access to your personal data and location without a search warrant.
Although there are instances where tracking cell phone data has led to drug
trafficking convictions and enhanced public safety, people need to understand
how diminished their individual privacy rights are. The Fourth Amendment guards
us from unreasonable searches and seizures unless judicially sanctioned and
without proper cell phone regulation, the Fourth Amendment has loopholes
accessible to anyone.
The Supreme Court is unable to agree on digital intrusion.
Currently, the Supreme Court justices are divided in their opinions over digital tracking,
which, in turn, is causing a delay in any explicit law protecting our Fourth
Amendment to its fullest. During the overturned 2008 drug trafficking
conviction of Antione Jones, the Supreme Court stated that the police obtained tracking
evidence by physically placing a GPS device on Jones' car without a warrant,
but many questioned whether or not the same privacy standard applies digitally.
When it comes to cell phones, there is no physical trespassing done in order to
acquire your location, it is all done digitally, which leaves the Supreme Court
divided in opinion. Some regard it unconstitutional when one's privacy is
physically invaded, but digitally is another story that continues to divide the
opinions of America's very own judicial system.
GPS Act: the first step towards possible regulation.
As of last
summer, the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act was introduced, providing
clear rules for when the government, law enforcement, private entities and
individuals can access your personal GPS tracking data. Modeled after the
federal wiretapping statues, the act protects our privacy rights in terms of
cell phone tracking, however, the act still needs to be refined on a national
level. Even though the Supreme Court is currently divided over digital intrusion
over physical intrusion, government regulations need to be established such as
the aforementioned act, in order to preserve our privacy rights in general. If
we fail to address the issue, technology will continue to grow, inching our
privacy to virtually none unless it becomes protected on a federal level.
More info:
The Daily Sundial article by Joseph A. Tomaszewski details more about the Supreme Court's divide over digital intrusion
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