Photo: jbtaylor /Flickr The nation’s mobile carriers weren’t kidding in April when they told California lawmakers that they were working “ day and night ” responding to police inquiries for subscriber information, such as locational data of where the phone was when it made and received calls. That, they said, made them just too busy to have to report publicly how often they get such requests, and the politically powerful carriers ultimately defeated California legislation requiring them to do so. But now it’s time for that requirement — as well as increased protection for Americans’ private data — to be made the law of the land. On Monday, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), as part of a congressional probe, divulged statistics about the number of requests made to cellphone providers, for the first time ever revealing that the carriers assisted law enforcement an eye-popping 1.3 million times last year alone in dishing out subscriber information like text messages, location data and calling records.

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1.3M Cellphone Snooping Requests Yearly? It’s Time for Privacy and Transparency Laws