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Can You Track Me Now?

As someone who is pretty tech savvy, I'm well aware that any device like cellphones that are designed to connect to any sort of global network can in turn be used to track ones whereabouts. But your average Joe Q. Public might not understand or comprehend this. Further still, laws governing the use of such tracking technology are still very vague and ambiguous.

And it is this vagueness and ambiguousness that is allowing federal prosecutors far too much leeway in gaining access to this tracking information.
Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Realize that in some of these cases, requests for this data were granted simply on the basis that the individual to be tracked possessed a cellphone and therefore must be using it for criminal activity. It's an argument that amounts to saying that simply because someone possesses a means of communication, said communication may be used to track them. When such an argument is applied to the broader spying scandal, one can see the need why scrutiny of these activities is warranted.

So just remember this the next time you pick up that new Razor you get for Christmas: While you're reaching out and touching someone, the government could be reaching out and touching you back.

More from Meme.

(Filed at State of the Day and All Spin Zone)