NY Court rules GPS tracking requires warrant

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ed Biebel <edward () biebel net>
Date: May 13, 2009 10:06:16 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: NY Court rules GPS tracking requires warrant

Dave,

A NY appeals court reached the opposite decision regarding GPS  
tracking indicating that police need a warrant before using a GPS  
tracking device:

ALBANY — A Watervliet man will get a new trial on burglary charges  
after the state's top court ruled Tuesday it was wrong for a police  
investigator to slap a GPS device on the defendant's van to track his  
movements without a search warrant.

A divided Court of Appeals, in a 4-3 decision, reversed the conviction  
of 41-year-old Scott Weaver, finding that his protection against  
unlawful search and seizure under the state constitution was violated.  
The court suppressed information obtained from the device from being  
used as evidence at a new trial as it was at the first trial.
Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, in the 20-page majority opinion, wrote:  
"What the technology yields and records with breathtaking quality and  
quantity is a highly detailed profile, not simply of where we go, but  
by easy inference, of our associations — political, religious,  
amicable and amorous, to name only a few — and of the pattern of our  
professional and avocational pursuits."

He also wrote that "the great popularity of GPS technology for its  
many useful applications may not be taken simply as a massive,  
undifferentiated concession of personal privacy to agents of the state."



[snip]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=799375

Ed





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