Cell phones show human movement predictable 93% of the time: Via Ars Technica.

We'd like to think of ourselves as dynamic, unpredictable individuals, but according to new research, that's not the case at all. In a study published in last week's Science, researchers looked at customer location data culled from cellular service providers. By looking at how customers moved around, the authors of the study found that it may be possible to predict human movement patterns and location up to 93 percent of the time. These findings may be useful in multiple fields, including city planning, mobile communication resource management, and anticipating the spread of viruses. [ Read more ... ]

FBI Tracks Suspects' Cell Phones Without a Warrant: Via Newsweek.com .

Law enforcement is tracking Americans' cell phones in real time—without the benefit of a warrant.

But many federal magistrates—whose job is to sign off on search warrants and handle other routine court duties—were spooked by the requests. Some in New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas balked. Prosecutors "were using the cell phone as a surreptitious tracking device," said Stephen W. Smith, a federal magistrate in Houston. "And I started asking the U.S. Attorney's Office, 'What is the legal authority for this? What is the legal standard for getting this information?' "

Those questions are now at the core of a constitutional clash between President Obama's Justice Department and civil libertarians alarmed by what they see as the government's relentless intrusion into the private lives of citizens. [ Read more ... ]

Cell Phone Users: Your Privacy is at Risk: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

(Originally posted on Philly.com)

If you own a cell phone, you should care about the outcome of a case scheduled to be argued in federal appeals court in Philadelphia tomorrow. It could well decide whether the government can use your cell phone to track you — even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology will ask the court to require that the government at least show probable cause before it can track your whereabouts.

Although most people don't realize it, cell phones double as tracking devices. Newer phones contain GPS chips, the same technology that allows car navigation systems to know where you are and give directions ("Turn right now"). But even older phones that don't have chips can be tracked by knowing the location of the cell towers they use to connect to a network. [ Read more ... ]

Cellular user privacy at risk: Via Philadelphia Inquirer .

If you own a cell phone, you should care about the outcome of a case scheduled to be argued in federal appeals court in Philadelphia tomorrow. It could well decide whether the government can use your cell phone to track you - even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology will ask the court to require that the government at least show probable cause before it can track your whereabouts.

Although most people don't realize it, cell phones double as tracking devices. Newer phones contain GPS chips, [ Read more ... ]

EFF Asks Court to Suppress Evidence Illegally Gathered From Password-Protected Phone: Via EFF.org Updates.

Our cell phones aren't just for calls anymore. They hold our address books, our calendars, our emails, and our grocery lists. They may even include things like a list of questions to ask your doctor, pictures of your girlfriend, or URLs of web sites you've visited. When can police search your phone and look at all this information?

That's the question that EFF is asking a court in California to consider. In People v. Taylor, police in Daly City, California seized a suspect's iPhone during his arrest. Hours later, investigators bypassed the password and searched through the data on the device without a search warrant. After the officers realized that the information was too extensive to write down, they finally obtained a warrant to search the phone. [ Read more ... ]

Big Brother in Your Pocket: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

If someone in the 1970s had revealed that within 40 years Americans would all be carrying electronic location-tracking devices with them wherever they traveled, people at the time would have either scoffed at the notion, or concluded that we were destined for a totalitarian takeover by the Soviet Union.

Yet here we are just three decades later, and that situation is precisely what we are rapidly finding ourselves in. The technology is our cell phones.

In 1996 Congress enacted a federal law that requires cell phone providers to install technology that will report the location of a caller who dials 911. The result of this "enhanced 911" or e-911 functionality is that today’s mobile phone networks are being built to detect your location — and lots of companies want to make money off of that. [ Read more ... ]

TSA Reads Blog Comments, Changes Policy - Via Threat Level:

In what is likely a first for the federal government, the Transportation Security Administration responded to complaints left in blog comments by actually changing the offending policy.

On Monday, fliers asked the TSA's new blog Evolution of Security why some airports were requiring passengers to remove all electronics - MP3 players, cell phones and even power cords - from their carry-on bags. So the first name-only bloggers at TSA looked into it, figured out it was local rogue offices and shut down the policy. [ Read more ... ]