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Dec 9
2013

Cellphone surveillance: A new tool in police arsenal to combat crime

Written by John Kelly USA Today

The National Security Agency isn’t the only government entity secretly collecting data from people’s cellphones. Local police are increasingly scooping it up, too.

Armed with new technologies, including mobile devices that tap into cellphone data in real time, dozens of local and state police agencies are capturing information — about thousands of cellphone users at a time, whether they are targets of an investigation or not, according to public records obtained by USA Today, The Des Moines Register and other Gannett newspapers and TV stations.

The records, from more than 125 police agencies in 33 states, reveal:

Dec 9
2013

Tech Giants Band Together to Fight Government Surveillance

By Margaret Hartmann

If NSA employees were bummed that President Obama hasn’t paid them a visit, they’re going to be devastated to learn that all their favorite tech companies are publicly calling them out. Eight companies – Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, LinkedIn and AOL – have put aside their rivalries and issued a call for the reform of government surveillance. “We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide,” says an open letter featured in full-page ads in several newspaper on Monday. “The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish.”

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