Cue the Big Brother ringtone

The Bush years have seen an impressive gutting of civil liberties and privacy rights, but most people aren’t worried. After all, if you don’t pray to a suspect god, have the wrong skin color, or hold noisy political beliefs, what could possibly give the feds the right to spy on you? According to today’s Washington Post, carrying a cell phone could.

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Probable cause? That’s pre-9/11 thinking.

Tags: cell phone, civil liberties, pre-9/11 thinking, privacy rights, probable cause, tracking data