Judge Rules Law Enforcement Must Have a Warrant To Access Your Location Data
Good news today from our judicial system thanks to United States Judge Lynn Hughes who put the smackdown on a recently passed law that allowed for law enforcement to obtain location data records without a warrant or probably cause. Judge Kibosh ruled the law “unconstitutional” saying,
“When the government requests records from cellular services, data disclosing the location of the telephone at the time of particular calls may be acquired only by a warrant issued on probable cause. These data are constitutionally protected from this intrusion.”
As a refresher, the government’s argument for warrantless access to cellular data records claims that the Stored Communication Act eliminates the need for a warrant or probable cause on the idea that users give up a certain amount of privacy rights (all of them) when they sign up for service from a 3rd part company like as carrier.
Score 1 for the people.
[WSJ via Electronista]