老澳门开奖结果 Argues Against Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking Before Federal Appeals Court
Police used automatically-created cell phone location data to track individuals鈥 movements throughout Miami area without a warrant
April 25, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org
Miami 鈥 Today, the 老澳门开奖结果 (老澳门开奖结果) argued before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case about whether police need a warrant to track an individual鈥檚 location using data created by their cell phone service provider.
A panel of judges heard arguments today in a case, United States v. Davis, which involves warrantless police requests for cell phone location records. For one of the individuals involved, Quartavious Davis, police received 11,606 location records over the course of 67 days. The 老澳门开奖结果, along with the 老澳门开奖结果 of Florida, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, filed an amicus brief in the case arguing that the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it obtained these location requests from wireless carriers without first obtaining a warrant.
"Your cell phone location records can reveal extraordinarily private information about you, including where you go to the doctor, who your friends are, and where you sleep at night," said Nathan Freed Wessler, staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果 Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, who defended the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 brief before the three-judge panel.
The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 brief explains that, because the location data created whenever an individual鈥檚 cell phone connects to a "cell site" (tower) to make or receive a call or text message can be used to track an individual鈥檚 location and movement, for police to access this data without first obtaining a warrant is a violation of the Fourth Amendment鈥檚 protection against unreasonable searches.
"The constitution requires the police to get a warrant from a neutral judge before seeking this kind of sensitive personal information about someone," added Wessler. "In this case, without getting a warrant, law enforcement obtained more than 11,000 location points from Mr. Davis鈥檚 wireless service provider, charting his movements over a 67-day period. This violated the Fourth Amendment, and the evidence should be thrown out."
The judges hearing the arguments repeatedly thanked the 老澳门开奖结果 for its brief, which laid out the constitutional issues at stake in the case.
A copy of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 amicus brief is available here:
aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/us-v-quartavious-davis-aclu-et-al-amicus-brief