Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times

foundit66 · #1 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 09:34 PM

Quote:

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.

Through a mix of documents unearthed by Freedom of Information Act requests and the aforementioned recording, Soghoian describes how "the government routinely obtains customer records from ISPs detailing the telephone numbers dialed, text messages, emails and instant messages sent, web pages browsed, the queries submitted to search engines, and geolocation data, detailing exactly where an individual was located at a particular date and time."

The fact that federal, state, and local law enforcement can obtain communications "metadata"—URLs of sites visited, e-mail message headers, numbers dialed, GPS locations, etc.—without any real oversight or reporting requirements should be shocking, but it isn't. The courts ruled in 2005 that law enforcement doesn't need to show probable cause to obtain your physical location via the cell phone grid. All of the aforementioned metadata can be accessed with an easy-to-obtain pen register/trap & trace order. But given the volume of requests, it's hard to imagine that the courts are involved in all of these.

Soghoian's lengthy post makes at least two important points, the first of which is that there are no reliable statistics on the real volume and scope of government surveillance because such numbers are either not published (sometimes in violation of the legally mandated reporting requirements) or they contain huge gaps. The second point is that the lack of reporting makes it difficult to determine just how involved the courts actually are in all of this, in terms of whether these requests are all backed by subpoenas.

Underlying both of these issues is the fact that Sprint has made it so easy for law enforcement to gain access to customer data on a 24/7 basis through the use of its Web portal and large compliance department. Regarding the latter, here's another quote from Paul Taylor, the aforementioned Sprint/Nextel Electronic Surveillance Manager:

"In the electronic surveillance group at Sprint, I have 3 supervisors. 30 ES techs, and 15 contractors. On the subpoena compliance side, which is anything historical, stored content, stored records, is about 35 employees, maybe 4-5 supervisors, and 30 contractors. There's like 110 all together."

All of those people are there solely to serve up customer data to law enforcement, and other comments by Taylor indicate that his staff will probably grow.

Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times

No oversight.
No warrant necessary.
Stream-lined to show the government where you are and where you've been.
Over 8 million times...

This is part of the reason I am absolutely boggled by the idea of granting the telecoms immunity for supposed transgressions that NOBODY wants to talk about...

How many want to bet that Sprint is the only one doing this???

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 12-02-2009, 11:13 PM

Yeah I was just gonna say they are probably not the only ones, foundit, but it does give me a little satisfaction to have one more good reason not to have Sprint. I hate them.

Freedom
just another word in the dictionary

cnredd · #3 (**permalink**) 12-03-2009, 02:18 AM

It's not Sprint anyone should be mad at...

Quote:

The courts ruled in 2005 that law enforcement doesn't need to show probable cause to obtain your physical location via the cell phone grid.

Sprint is not GIVING the info...They're allowing the info to be TAKEN...It's the law enforcement that has to do the work....Sprint is just a doorway...

foundit66 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-03-2009, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

good reason not to have Sprint. I hate them.

Yeah.
I've got my own story of bad customer service frustration from them.
Repeated attempts to charge me false penalties.

Even blatant lies on "Yeah. Just go to the store and they will give you a replacement phone. I've placed a note in your file."
Yeah. Wasted trip to the store to be told that no such note existed...

[quote=cnredd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

Sprint is not GIVING the info...They're allowing the info to be TAKEN...It's the law enforcement that has to do the work....Sprint is just a doorway...

I disagree.
No warrant.
Yet Sprint is just giving the info.

If the cops came to an apartment door, and the landlord let them in, the landlord would deserve some of the blame...

And let's not kid ourselves.
It is entirely possible that Sprint is not giving this info up for free...
Here's another article about how phone and internet service providers are charging high prices to give customer information over to the government.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/200...iretap-prices/

So yeah.
I WILL put some blame at the foot of the people who are giving up customer info WITHOUT A WARRANT...

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