How long does your mobile phone provider store data for law enforcement access?

The American Civil Liberties Spousal relationship (ACLU) has been trying to obtain the when, why and how constabulary enforcement uses cell phone location data to track Americans. Today the ACLU posted the 2010 cell photograph information retention chart received from the Justice Department via a Freedom of Data Deed (FOIA) request. "Retention Periods of Major Cellular Providers" was meant "to suggest police force enforcement agents seeking to obtain cell phone records." Mobile phone providers store data ranging from text messages, to pictures, IP addresses, browsing history, cell towers used and telephone call logs.

For case in location tracking, since July 2008, AT&T indefinitely keeps data virtually which cell towers were used by your phone. Verizon stores your cell-site data for "one rolling year." Dart and Nextel keep it for xviii - 24 months. Virgin Mobile's is 'non retained' but can exist obtained through Dart.

If police enforcement is then inclined equally to detect out, then the "details" of your text messages are conveniently kept by AT&T for "post paid 5 - 7 years;" it does non retain the text message content. Verizon holds onto your text message detail for "1 rolling year" and your bodily text content for "3 - 5 days." In example you were wondering, the "details" are similar text "call" history which generally includes the date, time, sender's phone number and receiver'due south phone number. T-Mobile does not retain the message content, just hangs onto your text details for "pre-paid: 2 years; post-paid: v years." Sprint and Nextel agree text detail for "eighteen months" depending upon the device. Virgin Mobile which is owned by Sprint keeps text detail for "60 - ninety days" and the text message content for "90 days {search warrant required with "text of text" request}." Wow, at least i had the decency to mention a warrant is required.

Verizon keeps your IP session data for 1 twelvemonth just your browsing history "IP desitination information" for 90 days. While T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile store neither, both Nextel and Sprint store IP addresses and browsing history for lx days. AT&T IP session and destination info is "merely retained on not-public IPS for 72 hours. If public IP, non retained."

Picture memory is a fleck iffy for some as in "contact provider," according to the handy DOJ chart for police force enforcement. However T-Mobile stores pictures "online and are retained until deleted or service is canceled." You lot can see even more data retention information on the August 2010 chart, but information technology's unknown if mobile phone providers accept inverse any of this data since the DOJ's Reckoner Criminal offense and Intellectual Property Section compiled this "cloak-and-dagger memo" for cops.

Ane of the questions this chart for police force enforcement raises is why aren't data retentiveness policies revealed in cell telephone company user agreements? The ACLU asked, shouldn't prison cell phone companies "justify why they are hanging onto data that doesn't serve a business purpose, like the content of your text messages? Subsequently all, your telephone records are *your records,* and the information they reveal tin can exist strikingly personal - yous shouldn't be kept in the nighttime nearly who has access to them and for how long."

Mike German language, ACLU policy counsel and a one-time FBI agent, said to ReasonTV, "The authorities has no right to choice through your private information merely because that'due south technologically possible." Fifty-fifty if you were "doing nada incorrect" and were "no threat whatsoever," once the regime has the info about you, information technology "can hold that information on you forever." The recent interview covered the pinnacle threats to American's civil liberties since nine/11, ranging from "new interpretations of the Fourth Amendment to law enforcement'due south fascination with vast empires of data to 'fusion centers' that pool sources among intelligence agencies and local law."

Information technology's a very interesting six infinitesimal interview which included German mentioning the FBI'due south Investigative Data Warehouse which in 2008 independent "1.v billion records." Who knows how many are stored in that location at present? CBS once wrote, "Called Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW) computer system, they draw it as 'one-stop shopping' for FBI agents. Imagine it as a Google search engine for more 650 million records. One person even called it 'uber-Google'."

Similar the center-opening mobile phone provider nautical chart the ACLU obtained, German said of the surveillance laws and data existence nerveless about Americans, "Even if they can't use the data today, they think some technological algorithm is going to be adult that will allow them to see patterns in the flow of data; that let them to predict time to come criminal activities. Simply what I always told them is if somebody had some kind of process in which to predict the future, they wouldn't exist selling it to law enforcement; They'd be selling it to Wall Street and they'd exist selling it to Las Vegas."

Smashing, so there'due south no telling how much other data, like the cell phone record data, is beingness retained about Americans but that we do not nonetheless know exists.

Darlene Storm (non her real proper noun) is a freelance writer with a groundwork in information technology and information security.

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