Wireless carriers say they received 1.3 million requests last year from law enforcement agencies for subscriber text messages, caller locations, and other information, reflecting a steady increase during the past five years.
Carriers' responses to a congressional inquiry, as reported by The New York Times, reveal that thousands of records were turned over on a daily basis in response to law enforcement emergencies, subpoenas, and other court orders.
Nine carriers supplied reports in response to the inquiry, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The number of requests addressed by the study -- the first time law enforcement's cell surveillance has been studied at a national level -- surprised some officials who follow the issue closely.
"I never expected it to be this massive," Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who is co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, told Times. "There's a real danger we've already crossed the line."
Law enforcement requests for information have risen 12 percent to 16 percent for each of the past five years, The Times noted. AT&T said it now responds to more than 700 request a day, about a third of which do not require court orders or subpoenas, while Sprint said it logged the most requests for information than any carrier last year, rep... [Read more]
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