Judiciary presses FBI on cellphone spying

The leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee are pressing the Obama Administration for more information about a program that collects Americans’ cellphone data using technology that mimics cellular towers.

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed that the FBI recently changed its legal policy when seeking court approval to deploy the technology. "We are concerned about whether the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have adequately considered the privacy interests of other individuals who are not the targets of the interception," they wrote in the letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson. While the updated policy now requires a search warrant, both Senators expressed concern about exceptions to that rule. The letter does not outline the previously legal policy or when, specifically, it changed. The FBI does not need a warrant to deploy the technology, the Senators noted, if the case involves imminent danger, a fugitive or if the technology is used in public places where there is "no reasonable expectation of privacy."

[Dec 31]