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Archive for the ‘lawmakers’ Category

Easy Data Recovery » Track Cell Phone Location – Really How …

www.easydatarecovery.info3/8/12

The capacity to track cellphone numbers and their locations possesses greatly advanced in the last few years as in the early days cellphone location monitoring had been a truly harsh position that has been calculated within …

Slaying suspect's body found by tracking cellphone – Spokesman …

www.spokesman.com2/14/12

A tracked cellphone signal led police Monday to the body of the suspected killer they had been hunting ever since a mother and her two children were found dead Friday in their north Spokane home. A police dog found …

If You Have A Cellphone In Your Pocket, Then Maybe You Are?!

Why Do Cellphone Companies Track Phones?

The reason that cellphone companies employ tracking devices is not as worrying as it might appear on first hearing, and it’s done in order to connect your phone to the nearest cell tower so that you can be located in case of emergency, and it’s a federally mandated feature called E9-1-1.

How Accurate Is The System?

Cellular providers can now pinpoint the location of a cellphone to within
150 feet (45 meters), and they’re improving on that all the time.

So What’s The Problem?

Well right now there isn’t a real problem and the tracking ability could turn out to be a life saver, but cellphone analyst Sascha Segan says, "At any moment, if your cell phone is on, your provider can tell where you are. Right now, they don’t store that bit of information, but if the government makes that a legal requirement, they might have to. They also don’t track your location when you’re not making calls, but they easily could. It’s technically feasible, and it’s not discussed in your cell phone contract. Contracts detail certain privacy regulations, but all are subject to government laws and regulations. A change in the law would supersede your contract".

But the F.B.I. Already Uses The Records

The question of legality was in fact discussed last Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia heard arguments in a case that centers around Philadelphia F.B.I. agent William Shute, who testified that he had obtained records 150 times in recent years to track the location of federal fugitives.

The Fourth Amendment which guards against illegal search and seizure was cited frequently in Friday’s case, but Dr. Abbe Forman, who is a professor and digital ethics expert with the computer and information science department at Temple University’s College of Science and Tech. noted that, "The right to privacy while implied in the Constitution, is not explicitly guaranteed".

The third U.S. Circuit Judge Dolores Sloviter did appear to be leaning in favor of The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union who argued in court Friday that the practice raises serious privacy issues.

"If we tell people they will be safer because they can be found in case of emergency, most people will look no further for information, even though the great majority of them will never be lost to that extreme. But can the government assure us that it will never try to find out these things?", she asked. "Don’t we have to be concerned about this? Not this government right now, but a government?.

It appears that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will suggest an additional plan in the coming days that in essence would make it possible to use government money to help reduce interest rates for borrowers that are in dire straits and he will also ask lawmakers to approve alternative ways to modify mortgages.

The administration has already pledged to use $50 to $100 billion for housing relief and the money would be taken from the $700 billion bank rescue package that was enacted last year.

Geithner told the ‘Senate Banking Committee’ yesterday,

“Our focus will begin on using the full resources of the government to help bring down mortgage payments and help reduce mortgage interest rates”.

Geithner’s new plan, which could still change, would be voluntary for both lenders and investors but is presently aimed at loan modifications. The intention being to insure that the cost of a foreclosure would be higher than that of adjusting the loan terms for houses with a positive net present value.

Last year’s foreclosure filings in the U.S. were the highest on record surging 81% to an enormous 2.3 million and whilst house prices fell tighter mortgage standards made it ever more difficult for homeowners to sell or to refinance.

A close source who is familiar with the details of the plan said that borrowers wouldn’t need to be in foreclosure proceedings in order to take advantage of the program and added that the new program was intended to create a common standard for loan modifications which would replace the whole range of standards that are currently in use.

Christopher Dodd, who is the ‘Senate Banking Committee Chairman’ told reporters that “using $50 billion to $100 billion of the $700 billion bank rescue fund to stem foreclosures will create a tourniquet for the housing crisis and help families stay in their homes”.