Tens of thousands of times a year, federal courts issue orders to let the government obtain cell phone and email records -- and they do it in secret. What happened to our right to privacy? If you’re a savvy user of technology, you probably already know that your smartphone is a rat, which is to say it’s always willing to tell on you — where you’ve been, where you are, who you’ve talked to, and what you’ve searched on. And you may already know that numerous government agencies routinely request that data from cell phone carriers. But what you probably did not know, is that the court orders used by various levels and agencies of government to get their hands on that information are so opaque, so shrouded in secrecy, that those orders “might as well be written in invisible ink.” That’s a good turn of phrase and it isn’t mine. It was written by Magistrate Judge Stephen W. Smith of the federal bench in Houston, Texas in a unsettling article that will soon be published in the Harvard Business Review. You might think that most of those secretive court orders are issued in case of national security, or to investigate suspected terrorism. But that’s not at all the case. As Smith points out, those types of requests are handled by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, which was set up back in the Carter administration. Not surprisingly, its proceedings and records are closed to public view. Since 1979, the FISA court has processed over 28,000 warrant applications and renewals, a rate of nearly one thousand secret cases a year. But that number is dwarfed by surveillance orders (requests for cell phone and email records) granted under the authority of other legislation, particularly the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Even a federal judge has trouble obtaining information about secret surveillance orders. But Smith estimates that in 2006 alone, federal courts issued more than 30,000 orders for electronic surveillance. So in one year alone, secret orders for cases that did not involve national security exceed 23 years worth of surveillance orders issued by the FISA court. Not only do courts issue these orders in secret, the government (and by that I mean, federal, state and local) can get them rather easily. As Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for the New York Times wrote recently: “If all officials want to know is whether someone was near a cellphone tower on a given date, say, or whom that person called or e-mailed last month, the law says the government need only demonstrate to a judge that there are ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that the information sought is ‘relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.’” All of the above makes a mockery of the protections against unreasonable searches and the transparency of court proceedings enshrined in the Constitution. Earlier this week, I argued that if you’re really concerned about invasions of privacy by Facebook and other social media sites and apps you can stop using them. Regulating Facebook to protect our privacy is a bad idea. But putting a stop to secret surveillance is something that Congress should stop. Let your representatives know how you feel. Related content brandpost Who’s paying your data integration tax? Reducing your data integration tax will get you one step closer to value—let’s start today. By Sandrine Ghosh Jun 05, 2023 4 mins Data Management feature 13 essential skills for accelerating digital transformation IT leaders too often find themselves behind on business-critical transformation efforts due to gaps in the technical, leadership, and business skills necessary to execute and drive change. By Stephanie Overby Jun 05, 2023 12 mins Digital Transformation IT Skills tip 3 things CIOs must do now to accurately hit net-zero targets More than a third of the world’s largest companies are making their net-zero targets public, yet nearly all will fail to hit them if they don’t double the pace of emissions reduction by 2030. This puts leading executives, CIOs in particul By Diana Bersohn and Mauricio Bermudez-Neubauer Jun 05, 2023 5 mins CIO Accenture Emerging Technology case study Merck Life Sciences banks on RPA to streamline regulatory compliance Automated bots assisted in compliance, thereby enabling the company to increase revenue and save precious human hours, freeing up staff for higher-level tasks. By Yashvendra Singh Jun 05, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation Robotic Process Automation Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe