Cellphones: The new US tracking devices

The New York Times reports.

The practice has become big business for cellphone companies, too, with a handful of carriers marketing a catalogue of “surveillance fees” to police departments to determine a suspect's location, trace phone calls and texts or provide other services. Some departments log dozens of traces a month for both emergencies and routine investigations.

News24 reports that a survey released by the American Civil Liberties Union found that "the overwhelming majority of law enforcement agencies that responded engage in at least some cellphone tracking", the organisation said.

"Most law enforcement agencies that responded engage in cellphone tracking for investigative purposes. Even those that have not tracked cellphones in the course of a criminal investigation have tracked cellphones in emergencies, for example to locate a missing person."

The use of phone tracking, using GPS or other technology to locate people through their cellphones, is a murky legal area, AFP notes.

The US Supreme Court has held that the use of GPS devices placed by police on a suspect's car constitutes an "unreasonable search" under the Constitution. But the question of cellphone tracking is still making its way through the courts.