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The Department of Justice (DOJ) is calling for laws requiring wireless carriers to store user location data that could be helpful to criminal investigations in which a person's location is critical to solving the crime. The request came, ironically enough, in the middle of a Senate hearing at which lawmakers grilled Apple and Google executives over their collection and use of location-based data from iPad, iPhone, and Android devices

Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the DOJ, Tuesday testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law that it would be useful if companies that have access to smartphone location data could provide that information lawfully to criminal investigators. The DOJ is particularly interested in the data as it pertains to investigations about cyber crimes that target mobile devices, child abductions, and others in which a mobile phone user's location is crucial, he said.

"With cybercrime now the second largest criminal activity in the world, measures such as the creation of an 'Internet Interpol' and better cooperation between international law enforcement agencies are needed if criminals are to be curtailed in the future, Kaspersky Labs founder and security expert Eugene Kaspersky has argued. He said, 'We were talking about that 10 years ago and almost nothing has happened. Sooner or later we will have one. I am also talking about Internet passports and having an online ID. Some countries are introducing this idea, so maybe in 15 years we will all have it.'"