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http://RevolutionNews.US - AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to record and store information about Americans’ private text messages for at least two years, according to a proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress.

If Americans aren’t disturbed by phone carriers’ practices of handing over cell phone users’ personal data to law enforcement en masse–in many cases without a warrant–we might at least be interested to learn just how much that service is costing us in tax dollars: often hundreds or thousands per individual snooped.

Police departments, the FCC and the wireless phone industry have devised a plan to fight smartphone thefts: the creation of a central database to track stolen phones and prevent them from being used again, which will allow wireless providers to disable and block further use of a device once it is reported stolen. Legislation from Congress that would make it a federal crime to tamper with a PHONE'S UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS in an attempt to evade the blocking process.

Law enforcement representatives are planning to endorse a proposed federal law that would require Internet service providers to store logs about their customers for 18 months, CNET has learned. The National Sheriffs' Association will say it "strongly supports" mandatory data retention during Tuesday's U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the topic.

Police can now read the messages on your phone at will!

A ruling of the California Supreme Court declared that if you are suspected of any wrongdoings, police officers can read the messages on your phone without needing a warrant. It's yet to be seen how this decision, part of the People versus Gregory Diaz case, will be implemented in practice and in the different states.

Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made more than 1.3 million requests for consumers’ cellphone records in 2011, an alarming surge over previous years that reflected the increasingly gray area between privacy and technology. Cellphone carriers, responding to inquiries from a member of Congress, reported responding to as many as thousands of police requests daily for customers’ locations, text messages and call details, frequently without warrants.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said the Commercial Mobile Alert System that Congress approved in 2006 will direct messages to cellphones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other serious emergency. There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children.

ACLU affiliates across America requested information on local law enforcement's use of cell-phone tracking across the nation and have received a wealth of disturbing information about the extent of wireless tracking. They have produced a map showing which police departments were discovered to be tracking people's phones without a warrant.

Pakistan's mobile operators are scrambling to block text messages containing any of more than 1,600 "obscene" terms banned by the country's telecoms authority ahead of tomorrow's deadline.The list, including words from "quickie" to "fairy" to "Jesus Christ", was distributed on November 14 with operators given seven days to comply, but has met with widespread derision and a threat of legal action.