The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have requested Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the U.S. Department of Justice turns over data for their tracking of cell phones. The concern is that our government tracks data from the carriers without any involvement of courts.

The groups have filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents, memos and guidelines on tracking cell phone users in November 2007 but the Department of Justice did not want to comply, but rather said that law enforcement goes through the courts to lawfully obtain tracking data, and has no interest in tracking law-abiding citizens.

The problem may thus also be that the government obtains court approvals without providing the necessary proof of probable cause of a crime, as required by the Fourth Amendment. The civil liberties groups also found cases in which some U.S. attorneys alleged they don't need probable cause of a crime in order to track cell phones of Americans.

ACLU lawyer Catherine Crump said there is an urgent need for clarifying possibly unconstitutional government surveillance techniques. In the statement, Catherine Crump also said that signing up for mobile phone service should not be synonymous with signing up to be spied on and tracked by authorities.

David L. Sobel, EFF senior counsel and co-counsel in the case, also pointed out the overwhelming public interest in the requested information.