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A New York state judge has concluded that a powerful police surveillance tool known as a stingray, a device that spoofs legitimate mobile phone towers, performs a "search" and therefore requires a warrant under most circumstances.
As a New York State Supreme Court judge in Brooklyn ruled earlier this month in an attempted murder case, New York Police Department officers should have sought a standard, probable cause-driven warrant before using the invasive device.
The Empire State court joins others nationwide in reaching this conclusion. In September, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals also found that stingrays normally require a warrant, as did a federal judge in Oakland, California, back in August.
According to The New York Times, which first reported the case on Wednesday, People v. Gordon is believed to be the first stingray-related case connected to the country's largest city police force.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @07:52PM
Since these things necessarily slurp up data from more than just the intended target, they shouldn't be able to use them at all, even with a warrant. They can't even remotely guarantee specificity with this.