Police Can Obtain Cellphone Location Records Without a Warrant

mi writes: A new ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found by a margin of 9-2 that law enforcement does not need to get a warrant to grab your cell phone's location records. The justices ruled that there is no expectation of privacy for your location when you're using a cell phone. This decision (PDF) was based on a case in which a man was convicted of robbery after months of location data was given to authorities by his cell phone carrier, MetroPCS. Police got the information using a court order, rather than a warrant, because there were less stringent requirements involved. One of the judges wrote: "We find no reason to conclude that cellphone users lack facts about the functions of cell towers or about telephone providers' recording cell tower usage."

Comments

If you're employed as a highwayman

[rmdingler]

If you steal for a living, and you haven't watched enough crime TV to know you don't want to be carrying a subscription cell phone with you on game night,

shit, you need to investigate another line of work.

Attention to detail is not your strong suit.