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Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Court: Cops need warrants for cellphone location data

A federal court ruled on Wednesday that the government cannot obtain information about a cellphone's location without a warrant.

The split decision from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that warrantless searches of cellphone data are unconstitutional, a victory for privacy advocates who have sought new protections for people’s information.

“We conclude that the government’s warrantless procurement of the [cell site location information] was an unreasonable search in violation of appellants’ Fourth Amendment rights,” Judge Andre Davis wrote on behalf of the majority of the three-judge panel.

“Examination of a person’s historical [cell site location information] can enable the government to trace the movements of the cellphone and its user across public and private spaces and thereby discover the private activities and personal habits of the user,” he added. “Cellphone users have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in this information."

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2 comments:

lmclain said...

Whhhaaaat???
A judge still remembers the 4TH Amendment?
BUT -- it was still a split decision, so all you wanna-be Nazi's still have hope!

Anonymous said...

And yet, there was a bunch of back slapping and handshaking when Lewis violated the law and got the cell location of a pedophile.