CDT and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a "friend of the court" brief today arguing that the government must get a warrant to collect the content of a telephone call, even if that content comes from digits dialed on a phone keypad. A federal court in Texas denied the government's attempt to use a "pen register" to obtain call content, but the government is seeking reconsideration of that denial and the court invited EFF and CDT to file a brief addressing the appropriate standards for interception of keypad input such as bank account numbers and voicemail passwords. June 30, 2006
EFF and CDT Amicus Brief [PDF] : http://cdt.org/wiret...-cdt-amicus.pdf June 30, 2006"
From the EFF story, here: http://www.eff.org/news/
"Until Magistrate Judge Smith asked for the brief, these pen/trap requests were unknown to the public. The judge previously asked EFF to respond to the government's secret requests to track cell phone locations without a warrant based on probable cause. Judge Smith as well as several other magistrates around the country have now held that the government cannot track cell phone locations unless it can show probable cause and a judge finds good reason to believe that criminal activity is afoot."