U.S. court says no warrant needed for cellphone location data

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Police do not need a warrant to obtain a person's cellphone location data held by wireless carriers, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday, dealing a setback to privacy advocates.

The full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, voted 12-3 that the government can get the information under a decades-old legal theory that it had already been disclosed to a third party, in this case a telephone company.

The ruling overturns a divided 2015 opinion from the court's three-judge panel and reduces the likelihood that the Supreme Court would consider the issue.

The decision arose from several armed robberies in Baltimore and Baltimore County, Maryland, in early 2011, leading to the convictions of Aaron Graham and Eric Jordan.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-mobilephones-idUSKCN0YM2CZ

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Technology | Tue May 31, 2016 2:31pm EDT
WASHINGTON | BY DUSTIN VOLZ

[NWCorona]

1. This will be challenged! Crazy times

[cstanleytech]

3. Sure they can they can try to challenge it but the question is will their argument

be persuasive enough to get SCOTUS to agree to hear the case and if SCOTUS does hear it will they be able to convince them that the lower court made an error?

[intrepidity]

2. To borrow a phrase....

technology can travel halfway 'round the world before the law has even got it's boots on....

They need to get in synch or at least in the same hemisphere.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Landlines are so much better.

[Democat]

5. Location data is much easier on a landline

Not much moving around.

[LiberalFighter]

6. I could be at home and people might think I was someplace else.

Or vice versa while using a desktop computer.

[bananas]

7. They can use this for speeding tickets and arresting protesters.

Last Friday, thousands protested Trump in San Diego. Police declared the protests unlawful and started arresting people. Now they'll be able to mass arrest (or fine) people after the fact, based on their cell phone location records.

[Octafish]

8. Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength