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U.S. Appeals Court Rules on Disclosure of Cell Location Records to Authorities
A Philadelphia appeals court recently ruled that police and other governmental authorities do not need a search warrant to track the locations of Americans' cell phones.
Mobile phone providers have records disclosing the location of customers when calls are placed and received. The Obama administration had argued that warrantless tracking of an individual's cell phones is permissible because "Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their cell phones’ whereabouts." As such, a cell phone user's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government the phone company’s own records that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.
While such records do not enjoy the constitutional protection of the Fourth Amendment, requiring probable cause to be established and a search warrant obtained, the appeals court held that judges have some discretion to decide whether they will hold applicants to the higher Fourth Amendment standard or if they will accept the lower threshold of relevance to an ongoing investigation. However, the court noted that the option of requiring that investigators establish probable cause should be used sparingly. Unfortunately, the decision leaves open many questions about the constitutional protections afforded to cell phone location records.
For additional information, visit:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20015743-281.html