“Research participant needed for a study on credit cards conducted by a Cornell PhD student. Monetary compensation of $60 will be paid to participants who complete a photo-taking task and an interview. Participants need to bake pictures of anything that comes to their minds when they think about credit cards, and anything that can express how they think and feel about credit card, either by the disposable camera provided or by their own digital cameras depending on their own preference.”

… why, I just knew it had to make sense. So, I’ve gone and used my own digital camera, because that’s my own preference, and taken a whole lot of pictures of everything that I think of when it comes to credit cards. Now, I’ve set my oven to 450 degrees, and put my digital camera in on a no-stick pan.

I can’t wait to get my 60 dollars!

The Associated Press is reporting the story, but only part of the story. “That type of nonconsensual tracking would be illegal in the United States, according to Rob Kenny, a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission,” the AP writes.

What the AP quotes Rob Kenny as saying is not exactly true. Academics, and other private citizens like you and I cannot legally use cell phone networks to spy on people’s private movements and communications, but the government can.

Thanks to the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act, the American federal government has the power to do the same thing here in the United States that the researchers from Northeastern University did outside of the USA.

The White House can take the information your cell phone beams back to its network, and use that to see where you go and what you do, not just who you talk to with your cell phone. They don’t need a search warrant to do it. They don’t need your permission. They don’t even need to tell you they’re spying on you. No judge approves the spying. No one can stop it.

This kind of spying is a tool of political power.

With this power, the President can track political activists.

The President can eavesdrop on congressional aides.

George W. Bush has the power to spy on Barack Obama’s campaign.

The tricky part is that you can never be sure that you’re being spied on when you’re carrying your cell phone… and you can never be sure that you aren’t being spied on either.

Never being sure if someone from the government is watching where you go, or listening to what you say, you can never be sure that you’re alone.

That kind of environment stifles free speech, free association, and even free thinking.