Cell Phone Companies Really Don’t Want to Admit They’re Helping Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is big business to telecommunications companies. They don’t just hand out wiretaps out of the goodness of their hearts: they can collect millions of dollars from the government, every year, for these services.

So, needless to say, they’re opposed to anything that might disrupt this gravy train, like accountability, which is why the cellular industry is deeply opposed to, uh, requiring cops to get a warrant to spy on you, and disclosing how often they spy on you.

In an April 12, 2012 letter addressed to State Senator Mark Leno (author of the bill), CTIA says it is opposed to SB 1434 because it may “create confusion for wireless providers and hamper their response to legitimate law enforcement investigations.” The group also states that “[the bill will] create unduly burdensome and costly mandates on providers and their employees and are unnecessary as they will not serve wireless consumers.”


By the way, companies charge a flat fee and have gotten millions of tracking requests. So we’re not really sure what financial burden the poor cellphone industry would have to carry.

Look, guys, you can violate our privacy on your own time: it’s not like you don’t do that anyway. Give us this one sop to privacy, huh?

(Image via the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Flickr)

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