Another Privacy Issue

Cell phones are ubiquitous, therefore it's only natural to assume that they are used by criminals.  So, law enforcement agencies often request cell phone companies to supply messages, locations and other information about the companies' subscribers.  "Often" last year meant 1,300,000 times.  In most cases the agencies have followed the law.  However, the law is such that the companies are obligated to provide information if the law enforcement agency deems the request an emergency.

This is another area where questions of privacy can be answered in more than one way as there are really no standards that the companies can follow.