Justice Department pushes for tracking of cell phone locations

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: February 11, 2010 10:55:38 AM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Justice Department pushes for tracking of cell phone locations

Dave,

IPers might enjoy this preview of a case involving cell phone location tracking that will be before the Third Circuit 
in Philadelphia on Friday:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html

This is an unsettled area of the law, and the Third Circuit will be the first federal appeals court to address it.

The issues around cell phone location tracking include what legal procedures are required to track the retrospective 
(historical) locations of mobile devices vs. their prospective (future) locations -- when is a search warrant required, 
for instance?

There's also the tantalizing Fourth Amendment question of whether Americans enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy 
in their location records (which, as a magistrate judge in Pittsburgh noted, can reveal sensitive information such as 
health treatments, financial difficulties, marital counseling, and extra-marital affairs).

The Justice Department says "no" -- here's an excerpt from its brief: "Because wireless carriers regularly generate and 
retain the records at issue, and because these records provide only a very general indication of a user’s whereabouts 
at certain times in the past, the requested cell-site records do not implicate a Fourth Amendment privacy interest."

-Declan





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