“Courts across the country are grappling with a key question for the information age: When law enforcement asks a company for cellphone records to track location data in an investigation, is that a search under the Fourth Amendment?” Jenna McLaughlin reports for The Intercept. “By a 12-3 vote, appellate court judges in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday ruled that it is not — and therefore does not require a warrant.”
“Research clearly shows that cell-site location data collected over time can reveal a tremendous amount of personal information — like where you live, where you work, when you travel, who you meet with, and who you sleep with,” McLaughlin reports. “And it’s impossible to make a call without giving up your location to the cellphone company.”
“‘Supreme Court precedent mandates this conclusion,’ Judge Diana Motz wrote in the majority opinion. ‘For the Court has long held that an individual enjoys no Fourth Amendment protection ‘in information he voluntarily turns over to [a] third part[y].” The quote was from the 1979 Supreme Court case Smith v. Maryland,” McLaughlin reports. “The 5th, 6th, and 11th circuits have reached the same conclusion.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The U.S. Supreme Court needs to consider third-party doctrine, as does the U.S. Congress, for the digital age.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “CognativeDisonance” for the heads up.]