Over a million data requests to U.S. mobile carriers has been made by the police department for 2012 alone.
While Internet companies are very vocal about their resentment towards the U.S National Security Agency's surveillance program, telecommunications companies remain reserved about it.
However, these telecoms particularly major U.S mobile carriers A&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint have finally chosen to break their silence and revealed to Mashable that the local law enforcement agencies have sent them 1.1 million data requests in 2012, including requests for location data, browsing history, call logs, and text messages.
The figure, which refers to the quantity of requests the companies received but not necessarily answered, does not include requests sent by the NSA.
AT&T said that out of 297,500 requests they have received, they only rejected 1,300. Verizon did not give out statistics because it "does not track" the requests they have gotten and answered. Sprint, however, refused to show data at this time, arguing that its systems make it impossible to show such a number.
Cellular companies have also revealed 9,000 "cellular tower dumps," where police inquires for all mobile numbers connected to one or more towers at specific times that could involve hundreds of thousands of mobile numbers, its exact location at a specific time.
USA Today also reported Sunday that one out of four law enforcement agencies have used cellular tower dumps which it termed "cellphone data spying."
Using cellular tower dumps are very accessible because some companies, like AT&T doesn't need a warrant when releasing a historical cellular phone location data.
Mass. Senator Ed Markey said in a statement, "If the police want to know where you are, we should know why. When law enforcement access location information, it's as sensitive and personal as searching an individual's home and should be treated commensurately."
"As law enforcement uses new technology to protect the public from harm, we also must protect the information of innocent Americans from misuse," he added. "We need a 4th Amendment for the 21st century. Disclosure of personal information from wireless devices raises significant legal and privacy concerns, particularly for innocent consumers."
