Police Are Asking Cell Providers To Keep All Text Information, The Cost Could Come Back To You

A representative from the largest Police cities is in front of congress right now to ask all cell phone providers to hang on to all information and all text messages from their subscribers in order to help solve crimes in which text have been sent then erased.

In some cases phones are lost or stolen after the crime is committed and by having this information more law enforcement agencies across the nation say they could solve more crimes, find bodies, or put  more information together with their investigations.

The cell providers are saying this could shove some prices of cell plans with data through the roof in order to pay for the extra storage of information. Last year alone about 3 trillion messages were sent just in the US.

According to an article at CNET news The current policies of wireless providers have been highlighted in some recent cases. During a criminal prosecution of a man for suspected murder of a 6-year old boy, for example, police in Cranston, R.I., tried to obtain copies of a customer's text messages from T-Mobile and Verizon. Superior Court Judge Judith Savage said that, although she was "not unfamiliar with cell phones and text messaging," she "was stunned" to learn that providers had such different policies.

This is one that we all need to keep an eye on. I am all for helping law enforcement, but cell phone bills are high already. I think some alternate storage remedies need to be looked at.

Read More