Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times.
Christopher Soghoian, a graduate student at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing, has made public an audio recording of Sprint/Nextel’s Electronic Surveillance Manager describing how his company has provided GPS location data about its wireless customers to law enforcement over 8 million times. That’s potentially millions of Sprint/Nextel customers who not only were probably unaware that their wireless provider even had an Electronic Surveillance Department, but who certainly did not know that law enforcement offers could log into a special Sprint Web portal and, without ever having to demonstrate probable cause to a judge, gain access to geolocation logs detailing where they’ve been and where they are.
It’s well known by now (at least, to anyone who pays attention) that cell phones are used to spy on the location and movement of their owners. This is the first solid information I’ve seen on just how often the cops spy on people–and keep in mind that this is only one company. It’s pretty much guaranteed that other companies are equally eager to collaborate with Big Brother.
Leave a Reply