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Feds tracking credit cards, store purchases without warrant: report
By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 -- 9:13 pm
Federal law enforcement routinely tracks individuals through their credit cards, cell phones, car rentals and even store customer loyalty programs without obtaining a warrant, an online privacy activist has discovered.
According to a document (PDF) obtained from the Department of Justice by online privacy activist Christopher Soghoian, federal agents working on a criminal investigation can draw up their own paperwork requesting that credit companies and retailers give the agents real-time access to purchases made by a particular person.
No court reviews these orders, and the only role courts play in the process is to issue a non-disclosure order to the retailer or credit card company involved, meaning the person being tracked will never be notified of the surveillance.
The process is known as a "hotwatch," and it can be used to spy on cell phones, credit card use, purchases at stores when a customer loyalty card is used, car rentals, and flight ticket purchases. The process "sidestep any Fourth Amendment protections," Soghoian writes.
Ryan Singel at Wired notes the document doesn't set out standards for when an agent can obtain a "hotwatch" order. "The Justice Department told Soghoian the document is the only one it could find relating to 'hotwatches' which means there is either no policy or the department is withholding relevant documents."
-more here and here
By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 -- 9:13 pm
Federal law enforcement routinely tracks individuals through their credit cards, cell phones, car rentals and even store customer loyalty programs without obtaining a warrant, an online privacy activist has discovered.
No court reviews these orders, and the only role courts play in the process is to issue a non-disclosure order to the retailer or credit card company involved, meaning the person being tracked will never be notified of the surveillance.
The process is known as a "hotwatch," and it can be used to spy on cell phones, credit card use, purchases at stores when a customer loyalty card is used, car rentals, and flight ticket purchases. The process "sidestep
Ryan Singel at Wired notes the document doesn't set out standards for when an agent can obtain a "hotwatch" order. "The Justice Department told Soghoian the document is the only one it could find relating to 'hotwatches' which means there is either no policy or the department is withholding relevant documents."
-more here and here
