Carrier fees for law enforcement wiretaps detailed

I'm sure there a lot of people out there that seriously worry about their privacy when using mobile phones. Despite how you feel about local and federal law enforcement being able to gain access to your conversations and data through your wireless phone carrier, it happens all the time with a court order. The fact that authorities can track your location and access information such as phone calls and text messages isn't new. What is new is recent figures that have surfaced showing how much major wireless carriers charge for the services.

Forbes reports that the American Civil Liberties Union revealed bunch of documents that it obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. According to the ACLU, the documents show a pattern of police tracking cell phone locations gathering other data such as call logs without warrants. One of the documents also shows a breakdown of the fees carriers charge for wiretaps and other services. It's worth noting that some of the carriers say they don't make any money off of these taps and fees are charged to law enforcement and emergency situations.

A wiretap for a customer on the T-Mobile network is $500 per target. Sprint charges $400 per market area and $10 daily fee up to $2000. AT&T charges a $325 activation fee along with the five-dollar fee per day for data and $10 fee per day for audio. Verizon charges $50 for an administrative fee plus $700 per month per target. A tower dump is a method of allowing the police to see the phone number of every user to access a certain tower over certain period of time. Fees for this range from $75 per hour up to $150 per hour. Fees for tracking people in real time start at $30 per month up to $100 per day.

[via Forbes]