That type of non-consensual tracking would be illegal in the United States

Whew. I was worried for a minute there.

Because they are only interesting in catching you, not helping you.

wtf it is? I bet they would be willing to tell you it is a phone.

Sounds like the researchers didn't get informed consent on this one. Did they think the IRB would call this ethical?

Of course this has/would never happened in the US.

When are we gonna have our civil liberties back?

Godscrack: If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to worry about

Um, who is that?

Try to track me.......Fed-Ex the phone across the country. Will totally fark up the feds.

/This could be like swapping peoples license plates in the parking garage?
//Mix and match.
///Also is great to screw up the photo traffic crime cameras.

TeddyRooseveltsMustache: When are we gonna have our civil liberties back?

That's like Lebowski asking the cop if they have any leads.

That type of non-consensual tracking would be illegal in the United States.

Is it really relevant what is and is not legal? The actions of the government have made it pretty clear that they have the power to make exceptions to cut straight through legal checks against potentially unjustified tracking, recording, searches, and seizures, and to do so as often as they damn well please. If anything, the whole legality bit only really applies to individuals anymore, not to the government; the mechanisms to bypass the laws are well-trodden paths in this day and age.

I like it when big brother watches me. It helps me feel safe at night.

WizardofToast: They're just watching us because they love us.

Love us to be afraid.

Actually I think they just want to sell us things.

Weaver95: are we feeling safer yet?

ZAZ: That type of nonconsensual tracking would be illegal in the United States, according to Rob Kenny, a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission.

But the federal government's position is that other types of nonconsentual tracking are legal and don't even require a warrant, no matter what public promises to the contrary may have been made. (Unless there has been a change in policy in the past two years. See thread 1913834 for the state of tracking in 2006.)

TeddyRooseveltsMustache: When are we gonna have our civil liberties back?

It wasn't the federal government (or any government for that matter) doing the monitoring.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University

Although the government may be doing their own monitoring, that isn't what the article was talking about.

However, as researchers concerned with conducting an ethical experiment, they did violate at least one principal of ethics, in which you are required to have informed consent from the participants.

TeddyRooseveltsMustache: When are we gonna have our civil liberties back?

When you see the price of oil go back down:)

Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.

I drive farther than that just to get to work, lol.

Whadjisay:

Woohoo Simulpost!

Don't worry Obama will fix all of this for us.

This is old news for anyone who works in the cellular industry. And it started under the Clinton administration.

Saw this on Reuters with the much less sensationalist headline:

"Phone study confirms people are creatures of habit"

Seems no worse than just having people monitor IP hits on websites or recording license plate numbers. Its not like this was done by the government for law enforcement.

Americans have much more realistic "big brother" issues to worry about.

Even caricatures and satires have their basis somewhere in real life.

.

So, they learned that most people can usually be found close to where they live? Did I get that right?

If you are really that worried about it, just use one of the cheap $20 prepaid phones like the crack dealers standing outside of subby's house.

/Or, just don't do anything that will get the feds after you.

Is that a cell phone in your pocket or are you just happy to track me?

Another reason the Weaver must be fought everywhere...

It's only illegal if they get caught.

Thanks to secret courts, and secret police... that won't happen. Hence it's effectively legal.

Besides... normally when they make the data "anonymous" and look at it in aggregate forms (just track IMEI's and not correlate that with personal data) that makes it legal. I'd bet the cell phone companies already have this data.

Interesting.


Google search this: a government that will not trust it's citizens


look at #5 result:

Gov't could track all emails and phone calls News - PC Advisor
May 20, 2008 ... Most of the law-abiding citizens will not have a problem with the governments ..... The government prove its ability to keep data secure? ...
www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=13114 - 78k - Cached - Similar pages


Can someone finish the phrase? A government that will not trust it's citizens...

TeddyRooseveltsMustache
When are we gonna have our civil liberties back?

1/21/09

It's a phone, subtard

DIGITALgimpus: It's only illegal if they get caught.

Thanks to secret courts, and secret police... that won't happen. Hence it's effectively legal.

Besides... normally when they make the data "anonymous" and look at it in aggregate forms (just track IMEI's and not correlate that with personal data) that makes it legal. I'd bet the cell phone companies already have this data.

Yep, they do. It's just not available to the average cust service rep you'd talk to over the phone for obvious reasons.

yagottabefarkinkiddinme: Can someone finish the phrase? A government that will not trust it's citizens...

... can't tell a contraction from a possessive?

I'm tracking my wife's phone right now so I'm getting a kick...

Funny how they don't say who the f'n researchers are. I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar it WAS in the US because otherwise this article wouldn't mean jack shiat to Americans. We would tend to travel further than most I'd imagine so doing a study in another country wouldn't mean shiat to us.

H_is_for_Heretic Actually I think they just want to sell us things.

This. I've suspected for a long time that all this data gathering/surveillance by govt is then sold to corporations for analysis and targeted marketing.

Remember those websites that let you request all the phone calls to and from someone's cell phone? Some guy ordered up the phone records of a bigwig politician and posted about it on his blog, raised a huge stink over the availability of anyone's records without a warrant. The "explanation" for how these websites were obtaining the phone records was "pretexting" - pretending to be the actual user in order to get a copy of your records. Congress even had some legislation to outlaw the practice of pretexting in response to the uproar.

But I don't believe for one minute that "pretexting" was the method used to obtain everybody's cell phone records. The turnaround time was entirely too fast (a matter of minutes) for each request for it to have been obtained by somebody calling up a cell phone company and faking it. Hell you can't even get a real live person on the phone for the first half hour. No way were these records obtained by pretexting. I suspect a covert govt surveillance operation was at least partially funding itself by offering these records for purchase through a myriad of fly by night websites. Either that, or the cell phone companies themselves were selling these records. And I suspect the practice is still going on, underground.

No, I am clueless. What is the difference? It's farking fark dammit.

"In the wrong hands the data could be misused," Hidalgo said. "But in scientists' hands you're trying to look at broad patterns.... We're not trying to do evil things. We're trying to make the world a little better."

Too bad every bit of data researchers collect in the US can be used by the CIA and FBI huh?

Kumana Wanalaia: TeddyRooseveltsMustache
When are we gonna have our civil liberties back?

1/21/09

MAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

Thread's best joke.

Is it really that surprising that we send out all this information through the air that someone just might recieve them? Hell I bet someone opened mail on the pony express that wasn't supposed to.

Wodheila: "Cell phone users secretly tracked..."

Actually only the phone is tracked. They really don't know who has it.

Well they didn't say cell phone "owners" they said users, and carrying it in your pocket while it's turned on would be considered "using" it.

Wise guy.