Cops Can Find the Location of Any Phone in the Country in Seconds

On Thursday, the New York Times published a blockbuster piece revealing how US law enforcement have access to a system that can geo-locate nearly any phone in the country without an officer necessarily having a court order. Now, Motherboard has obtained the letters that Senator Ron Wyden sent to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and telecommunications companies demanding answers on the controversial surveillance system. According to the New York Times report, a former sheriff of Mississippi County, Mo., used an obscure service called Securus to surveill targets’ cell phones, including a judge and other law enforcement officials.

That system is typically used by marketers to obtain location data from mobile carriers. As well as AT&T, the system can exploit data from Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, and law enforcement can essentially self-certify that they have legal authorisation to use the service, the report suggests.

Source: vice.com