You are being tracked.

BlowingKush

I hit the blunt but the blunt hit me.
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187
I realize alot of you don't give a damn about your privacy and are willing to let
government brush your teeth in the morning. But anyways, I ran across this article
which is very important.

If the Supreme court rules against privacy I will be canceling and throwing away my phones.








(CNN) -- On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will confront the profound impact of new location-tracking technologies on Americans' privacy. The case, U.S. v. Jones, presents the question of whether law enforcement needs a warrant before planting a GPS tracking device on a person's car. The answer to this question is important in its own right, but the case is likely to have broader implications.

Attaching a GPS to a car isn't the only way the government can track people's movements. In fact, everyone with a cell phone is already carrying a device that the government can use to track his or her location. As a result, the principle at stake in this case may well shape our privacy rights in the years and decades to come.

The police in the current case suspected Antoine Jones of drug violations and tracked his movements continuously for one month by installing a GPS device on his car. Increasingly, though, law enforcement agents are tracking our movements by tracking the cell phones that most people are already carrying around.


Catherine CrumpIt doesn't matter whether your phone is a smartphone or whether you use it to make calls; as long as your phone is turned on, it registers its location with cell phone networks several times a minute, and all U.S. cell phone companies hold on to that data, some of them for years.

This kind of tracking is extremely invasive, because if the government knows where you are, it knows who you are. As the Jones appellate court explained in its ruling that the government violated the Fourth Amendment, "A person who knows all of another's travels can deduce whether he is a weekly churchgoer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups -- and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts."

Cell phone tracking can reveal our private associations and relationships with one another. The government could make note of whenever people being tracked crossed path or spent time together, showing who our friends, associates and lovers are.

The Justice Department sometimes gets warrants to track location, and some local police departments make it a policy, which shows that it's not an unworkable requirement. But state and federal judges across the country have made conflicting rulings on what standards are required for the government to obtain tracking information from cell phone companies.

New technology provides the government with a powerful and inexpensive tool to follow individuals as they travel through both public and private areas. Unless the court concludes that such tracking requires a warrant, anyone's movements could be subject to remote monitoring and permanent recording at the sole discretion of any curious police officer, without any judicial oversight.

And while it may not be realistic to think that the government will install a GPS device on every car, it's not at all implausible to think that the government will ask cell phone providers to turn over location-tracking information en masse -- and it may well be the case that the government is doing so already. It was revealed last month that the London police have a system that lets them track hundreds of phones in real time in a targeted geographic area, a technology that could easily enable the government to identify everyone at an Occupy protest, tea party rally or any other political gathering.

The genius of the Constitution is that its limits on the government can still be applied in a modern world that the framers could scarcely have imagined. Anyone who values privacy should hope that the Court ensures the government cannot use technological advances to undermine the liberties this country was founded on.
 

Nigerianrulz

suga suga how'd you get so fly?
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199
what i wonder is even if the law states that you require a warrant to enable tracking, what stops the government from secretly doing it without notice? i mean how would you find out even if they are tracking you.
 

Sim

Forum Administrator
Staff member
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534
^

AKA I don't care. The government has nothing to track me for, and even if they did, they'd find nothing.

Building a country based on freedom and be overly zealous about it are 2 different things...
 

Sim

Forum Administrator
Staff member
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534
We don't live in the same country, and I understand your point, but what you brought up is an issue only for people who have something to hide or benefit from not being tracked.

Usually, those people are criminals so... don't expect me to be much in favor of your idea. As a perfectly normal citizen, I have nothing to gain from throwing out my cellphone in an attempt of privacy.

This is capitalism after all, right? If the cellphone doesn't suit you, don't buy it! No one forces you to own one... throw it away.

Oh and you didn't link the article in your post.
 

BlowingKush

I hit the blunt but the blunt hit me.
Reaction score
187
We don't live in the same country, and I understand your point, but what you brought up is an issue only for people who have something to hide or benefit from not being tracked. Usually, those people are criminals so... don't expect me to be much in favor of your idea.

Wow!!! You couldn't be more wrong.

I do not wish to be tracked, not becasue I have something to hide, but because
I have the constitutional right to live a hidden and secluded life if I so desire.

You see.... In America we have this thing called Freedom..... people used to die for it.
Today, people like you give it up like candy.

I want to live a free life....Its my American right... and you want to accuse me of being a criminal for exercising that right.

I also want to smoke where I want, and soon even the freedom to smoke will be taken away.

Then again, your not an American so why should I care about someone who is willing to let someone else dictate thier lives.
 

Varine

And as the moon rises, we shall prepare for war
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803
Technically you never actually had a right to privacy. And the US hasn't had freedom for quite some time.
 

azareus

And you know it.
Reaction score
63
^

You have the "right" to do what the government tells you that you can do. And nothing more. BTW you can quite easily turn off that GPS in your cellphone if it is so important to you. You can also reroute calls a few times to prevent tracking but it begins getting into the greyzone at that point.
Oh, and also you should not be able to smoke everywhere because when someone smokes right next to me, I have to do several exercises to not punch them in the mouth repeatedly :(
Also I have not used a cellphone for years because I don't need one. Yes, it is in fact possible to live without one. (Even though a lot of people seem to think differently)
 

Zakyath

Member
Reaction score
239
Wow!!! You couldn't be more wrong.

I do not wish to be tracked, not becasue I have something to hide, but because
I have the constitutional right to live a hidden and secluded life if I so desire.

You see.... In America we have this thing called Freedom..... people used to die for it.
Today, people like you give it up like candy.

I want to live a free life....Its my American right... and you want to accuse me of being a criminal for exercising that right.

I also want to smoke where I want, and soon even the freedom to smoke will be taken away.

Then again, your not an American so why should I care about someone who is willing to let someone else dictate thier lives.

here in Sweden a similiar law has passed. and we're doing fine. I'm positive no one is listening to my calls, and probably never will. and, if they will, I would never know anyhow. this really doesn't hurt me, sure it might go against some priniciples (even though my freedom really isn't resticted), but you can't just argue that nothing is bigger than principles, which is what you do. You also have to see this from a rational point of view, and really weigh the pros and cons against eachother. Only good will come from this law.
 

Slapshot136

Divide et impera
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471
what you brought up is an issue only for people who have something to hide or benefit from not being tracked.

doesn't everyone benefit from not being tracked? (with the exception of criminals, for which the police could obtain a warrant for) - it's not that only the people who violate the law will be tracked, as mentioned it will prevent protests (which are allowed), and give more information then necessary to the police (who honestly in this country have abused their rights quite a bit, any more power then necessary and they are a dangerous liability) - lets say the police force of a small town is all republican, and they see 10 people go visit a democrat convention - they could then.. oh I dunno, issue a speeding ticket to them for going faster then the speed limit between X and Y with information obtained via their cell phones position - see how these people won't even know how/why they were singled out? that is where this is heading

also, it is one of our rights as defined in the constitution - that alone should be enough.

Only good will come from this law.

if by "good" you mean an uncontrollable government that has the power to do whatever it wants regardless of principle.. sure
 

FireCat

Oh Shi.. Don't wake the tiger!
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530
So what's your solution? To gain real freedom? @BudSMoke
 

Zakyath

Member
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239
if by "good" you mean an uncontrollable government that has the power to do whatever it wants regardless of principle.. sure

principles are what fools points to in lack of arguments.

slapshot, you are not special. the government doesn't care about you. you won't be affected.
 

Bloodcount

Starcraft II Moderator
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297
Honestly, the government can track me as much as they want to. I am proud of the way I live and I have nothing to hide.
 

Sim

Forum Administrator
Staff member
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534
> I also want to smoke where I want, and soon even the freedom to smoke will be taken away.

Your liberty stops where mine commences.

As much as you want to smoke wherever you want, if I don't want you to smoke right next to me, it is in my right as well. Who is right in that case? Not freedom, not common sense, not principles, but the Law, which sometimes reforms Freedom in a way which is most comfortable for everyone.

Absolute Freedom of the individual and anarchy share a few common principles my friend.

> Then again, your not an American so why should I care about someone who is willing to let someone else dictate thier lives.

No one is dictating my life, and no one is dictating yours as well. As I said above, which you absolutely discarded without second thought, you will always be able to throw away your cell phone in the case you don't want it to track your movements.

That's just how cell phones work. Some network has to detect the location of it otherwise nothing will happen. Now I know that you question the access to that information from the Law Enforcement, but it's information that's available out there and might help us nail more criminals, so I'm not against it.

I stand by what I said: In no way does that limit your Freedom because said Freedom still enables you to throw away the problematic cell phone in the event that it invades your privacy.
 

Varine

And as the moon rises, we shall prepare for war
Reaction score
803
principles are what fools points to in lack of arguments.

slapshot, you are not special. the government doesn't care about you. you won't be affected.

For all you know he could be a domestic terrorist. He doesn't NEED an argument for this; the only people that need one are fools that want to defend things like this.

if I don't want you to smoke right next to me, it is in my right as well.

Yes. Also within your right is the ability to move.
 
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