WASHINGTON — In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations.
The cellphone carriers’ reports,
which come in response to a Congressional inquiry, document an
explosion in cellphone surveillance in the last five years, with the
companies turning over records thousands of times a day in response to
police emergencies, court orders, law enforcement subpoenas and other
requests.
The reports also reveal a sometimes uneasy partnership with law
enforcement agencies, with the carriers frequently rejecting demands
that they considered legally questionable or unjustified. At least one
carrier even referred some inappropriate requests to the F.B.I.-[Full Article]
