'Look Ma: No Warrant!
Democratic Representative Ed Markey revealed that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have made an astounding 1.3 million demands for user cell phone data in the last year - and he's Not in jail for leaking national security trinkets! Go Big Ed! Turns out cancer of the head and/or testicles isn't the only kind of cancer one might contract from one's cellphhone.
Ohhhhhh, No. The CIA may also infect that open wound that is one's brain. Apparently they are after text messages, caller locations and other information. It's all part of "an explosion in cellphone surveillance” in the United States—much of it done without a warrant. Worse, the eye-popping figure is actually a significant underestimate; the actual number is “almost certainly much higher" than reported, according to the New York Times:
Because of incomplete record-keeping, the total number of law enforcement requests last year was almost certainly much higher than the 1.3 million the carriers reported to Markey. Also, the total number of people whose customer information was turned over could be several times higher than the number of requests because a single request often involves multiple callers. For instance, when a police agency asks for a cell tower “dump” for data on subscribers who were near a tower during a certain period of time, it may get back hundreds or even thousands of names.
And then there's planet earth's crashing climate...one by one the systems life depends upon are coming down. some consumed by towering thunderheads on fire; others drowning in the ocean's tears. Not a niche left to knock on, no limb left to swing from...and you thought Fukushima is as bad as it can get?
Here's a website worth the trip: globaljusticeecology.org/
- KBOO