Friday, August 12, 2011

DON'T SPY ON ME



Tell Congress - don't spy on my cell phone
Tell Congress to protect your privacy from invasive cell phone location spying.

Do not forward: This link will open a page with your information already filled in.
Do you use a cell phone? Chances are, your answer is "yes." Does the government have the ability to track where you go, what you do, even who you know — all by using your phone? Well, that's a definite "yes."

The fact is, if you use a cell phone, your location is being recorded and stored. And law enforcement agencies see it as a gold mine of information that's there for the taking. We already know that one local police department sought information about every cell phone that happened to be in the vicinity of a planned labor protest.

We shouldn't have to choose between the convenience of technology and our right to personal privacy. New bills have been introduced by Sen. Wyden and Rep. Chaffetz that would create stronger location privacy protections. Tell your senators and representative to support updated location privacy legislation now. (Do not forward: This link will open a page with your information already filled in.)

Currently, the government claims that it doesn't need to go to a judge and get a full probable cause warrant before tracking cell phones. And because the government's applications are secret, we don't know just how it's using this invasive form of surveillance.

That's why last week, 34 ACLU affiliates across the country filed public records requests to find out just how far local law enforcement is going to track people using their cell phones. Through our public records requests, we expect to learn more about when, why and how local police are using cell phone location data to track us. In the meantime, we need to act now to demand stronger laws that protect all of us.

Tell the government that you want your location information to be kept private.

Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,

The ACLU Online Team