Privacy: Feds now track credit card use without search warrants or disclosure

Wired reports that federal law enforcement agencies are issuing "hotwatch" subpoenas, followed up by an order from a judge that the surveillance not be disclosed (unlike showing probable cause and getting a search warrant). This allows them to track people in real time instead of getting stored records.

Security researcher Christopher Soghoian got a PowerPoint presentation via a government sunshine request. You can see it here.

Who does this for the government? Well, one credit card processor, First Data Resources, participates in something like one in every four swipes in the U.S.

Its Omaha operations center is said to have more phone lines than the Pentagon.