Court Rules Police Need a Warrant to Access Location Data From Your Cellphone
Source: Slate
Take a moment and try to remember where you were 24 hours ago. Maybe youre a creature of habit and its easy to guess. Or maybe, like me, you cant quite recall whether you were at work, at home, or somewhere in between. Either way, if you had your cellphone with you, it would be astonishingly easy for someone with the right access to pin your location down. Thanks to a recent court decision, however, that information just got a lot harder to examine for many in the United States.
In an order released Thursday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy Koh found that Fourth Amendment protections extend to location data generated by cellphones. Ruling against the federal government, Koh affirmed that law enforcement agencies must seek a warrant before acquiring historical location data produced by a cellphone.
As Koh explains, modern phones constantly ping cellular towers, even when theyre not actively in use. Thanks to these regular connections, they generate a steady stream of data about their physical locationsometimes even when the user turns off location services, a fact that the ACLU stressed in an amicus brief. Koh notes that many users may be unaware of how much information theyre giving up as they move through the world. This data, which is known as cell site location information (or CSLI) can be important to legal investigations.
In the past, courts have largely avoided the issue of whether CSLI should be readily available. Koh writes, Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the Ninth Circuit has squarely addressed whether cell phone users possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in the CSLI, historical or otherwise, associated with their cell phones.
Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/07/31/a_court_ruled_that_fourth_amendment_protections_extend_to_location_data.html
Gothmog
(145,839 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)OnlinePoker
(5,729 posts)christx30
(6,241 posts)actually tracking suspects that have commited actual crimes, this shouldn't be a big deal for them. "Your honor, this guy robbed a bank and shot a guard. We need to arrest him so he can't hurt anyone, and for that, we need to know where he is." If the cops aren't doing anything wrong, then there is no need for them to worry about going to a judge for the go ahead.
seabeckind
(1,957 posts)and not just to gov't agencies.
I have no doubt my phone is telling every business I pass that I'm on the move.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Is just more proof that we need a fundamental restructuring of the U.S. economy.
I wonder if Bernie or Hillary would support protecting private information from government and corporate snooping.
rocktivity
(44,585 posts)Last edited Sat Aug 1, 2015, 12:30 AM - Edit history (1)
I have no problems with domestic spying -- I have only have problems with domestic spying without a warrant.
rocktivity
BadgerKid
(4,561 posts)Call me cynical.