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The Government Can No Longer Track Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant
Jason Koebler (3528235) writes The government cannot use cell phone location data as evidence in a criminal proceeding without first obtaining a warrant, an appeals court ruled today, in one of the most important privacy decisions in recent memory. "In short, we hold that cell site location information is within the subscriber's reasonable expectation of privacy," the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled. "The obtaining of that data without a warrant is a Fourth Amendment violation."
but if they use the tracking data to find it where you are, and then sent out some agents to see what you were up to, and found other incriminating evidence, they could present that evidence in court.
No they can't. Google fruit of the poisonous tree.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Now they just need to get a FISA warrant rubber-stamped or use parallel construction to make sure that the evidence is admissable.
They can still virtually follow you, build a case, use the information to connect you to others, use it to indicate where to look for other evidence, etc. The location data just can't be admitted as "evidence", doesn't mean they can't and won't continue to use the information otherwise. Small incremental progress, but definitely not a full block on use of the data.
What is more misleading is everyone's misunderstanding of the federal circuit courts; their rulings only apply to the states within the circuit. It really should say:
"The government can no longer track your cellphone without a warrant--in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama"