Smart phones do many things these days: surf the Internet, send e-mail, take photos and video . But one thing they can do that phone companies don’t advertise is spy on you. As long as you don’t leave home without your phone, that handy gadget keeps a record of everywhere you go — a record the government can then get from your telephone company.
The law is unclear about how easy it should be for the government to get its hands on this locational data — which can reveal whether you’ve been going to church, attending a Tea Party rally, spending the night at a date’s house or visiting a cancer-treatment center. A federal appeals court ruled last week that in some cases the government may need a search warrant. And while that’s a step forward, it’s not good enough. The rule should be that the government always needs a warrant to access your cell-phone records and obtain data about where you have been.
