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The Government Can No Longer Track Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant

Posted by samzenpus on from the doing-the-paperwork dept.

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."

8 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. FP? by dosius · · Score: 5, Informative

    Doesn't mean they won't keep doing it anyway.

    --
    What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
    1. Re:FP? by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The wording from the summary is more clear

      cannot use cell phone location data as evidence in a criminal proceeding without first obtaining a warrant

      So they can't use the tracking data as evidence, 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. They could always just say they happened to be in the area. Just the data of you being somewhere probably wouldn't be compelling evidence on it's own anyway, so there probably isn't much of a need to present your cell phone location as evidence if they have real evidence anyway.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:FP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      No they can't. Google fruit of the poisonous tree.

      Google parallel construction.

    3. Re:FP? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

      No they can't. Google fruit of the poisonous tree.

      And then google "parallel construction", which is designed to side step the whole poisonous tree and pretend like it never happened.

      In other words, it's a strategy of law enforcement to lie about the origins of a case so they can use illegal or flimsy evidence to prosecute you anyway.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:FP? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The illegal evidence still isn't used. They use the legal evidence obtained afterwards.

      Which they only gathered initially after using the stuff without probable cause or legal means.

      Parellel construction is the fruit of the poisonous tree, because the starting point of the investigation begins with "we have this, we're not legally allowed to have it, but what can we dig up to make it look like we got this legally?".

      As far as I'm concerned, it's essentially a legal strategy to allow perjury.

      If they had legally obtained information based on probable cause, there would be no issue. What they end up with is something else.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:FP? by mellonhead · · Score: 5, Informative
      Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

      http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805/

      U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

      Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

      The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial.

  2. The US Government can overrule anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because an appeal court judge rules that the government can not do something it doesn't mean that the government will oblige to that ruling

    The Obama administration is no longer bound by any law, nor the Constitution of the United States - they can overstep anything and overrule anything

    They can lie to the congress and get away with it

    They can set terrorists free without having to consult the congress, or the courts

    The Obama administration does not care about any judge / court / law, because to them, they are ABOVE IT ALL !

  3. That doesn't mean by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They actually have a name for it now, "Parallel Construction". Its where they use illegal evidence to locate a suspect/evidence, then they use some excuse (traffic stop, low level crime, etc) to search the suspect, and then lie/"forget" about where the initial information came from. An example is using illegal phone, email or internet taps to find a suspected drug runner, then pulling over that person when they're out driving to search their car for any evidence.