Marysville Appeal-Democrat

SCOTUS rules cellphone tracking records are off-limits without a warrant

- Los Angeles Times (TNS)

WASHINGTON – In a victory for privacy in the digital era, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Constituti­on protects tracking data from a cellphone, requiring police to have a search warrant to obtain cell tower records that show a person’s movement for days or weeks.

The justices, by a 5-4 vote, said the 4th Amendment protects the data from being searched without a warrant, even though these records are collected and held by a private company, not the government.

In Carpenter vs. United States, the court ruled for the alleged leader of an armed robbery gang in the Detroit area whose movements were tracked for 127 days using data from his cellphones.

The ruling reflects the high court’s increasing concern over the vast amount of private informatio­n that can be obtained and stored through digital technology_and often without the knowledge of the user.

Six years ago, the high court voted 9-0 to set aside the conviction of a Washington area drug dealer whose daily movements had been tracked by a GPS device that police had secretly attached to his vehicle. Four years ago, the justices ruled unanimousl­y in a San Diego case that the police need a search warrant before they may download the contents of a suspect’s smartphone.

But despite those unanimous votes, the justices had been uncertain about extending privacy rights to business records and other informatio­n that customers routinely turn over to others.

In the past, the court has drawn a sharp distinctio­n between what is private under the law and what is not. For example, talking on a phone is considered private, so police must obtain a search warrant before they may “wiretap” or otherwise listen to a call. However, the dialing records of phone calls were considered a business record and not private.

The effect of the ruling should be limited in California, however, since the state Legislatur­e in 2015 adopted a law that requires investigat­ors to have a search warrant before they can seek cellphone records.

The case decided Friday arose from a series of nine armed robberies of Radio Shacks and T-mobile stores in Michigan and Ohio in 2010 and 2011.

Timothy Carpenter was alleged to be the ring leader, having been identified by an accomplice who was under arrest. To confirm Carpenter’s involvemen­t, the FBI sought data from cellphone towers that would allow investigat­ors to track his movements for 127 days. When Carpenter used his cellphone, it connected to a nearby tower, giving police the informatio­n that helped convict him.

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