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The United State Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled that a "probable cause" warrant is required before law enforcement can obtain cellular location records for an individual. Two thieves in Baltimore were identified when their locations were correlated with robberies near Baltimore. Their conviction will be allowed to stand, as law enforcement had a good-faith belief that the technique was permissible at the time, but future investigations will be subject to the ruling. The US 4th Circuit is a Federal court that handles appeals from the states of Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. The ruling does not apply in other districts, which so far have ruled against the requirement, but could allow cases in other states to reach the Supreme Court.
Ars Technica coverage:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/warrant-required-for-mobile-phone-location-tracking-us-appeals-court-rules/
Link to the ruling, in PDF form:
http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/124659.P.pdf
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Thursday August 06 2015, @02:52PM
Private companies handing *any* data over to government without a court order should be made explicitly illegal.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 06 2015, @05:02PM
Eventually some form of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act [wikipedia.org] will get passed. All it takes is another few high profile hack attacks, and our nation's cyberwarriors will be collaborating more closely with corporations.
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