ACLU Probing Government Use of Cell Phone Location Data

The American Civil Liberties Union announced a new effort to uncover details on how local law enforcement agencies use location data stored on cell phones to track or provide evidence on private citizens.

Last month a top lawyer at the National Security Agency, Matthew Olsen, suggested the Patriot Act may have given the federal government powers to use cell phone data to track Americans inside the United States, a comment that alarmed privacy advocates and civil libertarians. Now 34 ACLU affiliates across the country cited Olsen's remarks and announced they had filed requests under government transparency laws for documents that could reveal how authorities use location data on cell phones for law enforcement. The ACLU groups want to know if agencies provide citizens the appropriate protections when they access this data; for instance, they want to know if officers tend to obtain a warrant first. They are also seeking statistics on how often authorities use this data and how much funding these efforts receive.