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SCOTUS says police need a warrant to get your cell phone tower data


DanRydell

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5-4 with Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor in the majority. Opinion here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf

The police can no longer track your location/movements by tracking what cell towers your cell phone is connecting to without first obtaining a warrant.

TBD whether this will be a significant revision of the third party doctrine or not. Roberts says the ruling is limited to technology that creates "a detailed chronicle of a person’s physical presence". But there will definitely be attempts to extend the idea that the information you provide to a third party can be so invasive that it requires a warrant to other tech.

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I think the crux of the prevailing ruling is that the data that is collected about you is necessary to using the service, which the justices agree is necessary to modern life. Definitely a step in the right direction. It is concerning that each of the four conservative justices each filed their own dissent though. We're going to have a very big-brother and corporate friendly SCOTUS for the next couple decades.

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49 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I think the crux of the prevailing ruling is that the data that is collected about you is necessary to using the service, which the justices agree is necessary to modern life. Definitely a step in the right direction. It is concerning that each of the four conservative justices each filed their own dissent though. We're going to have a very big-brother and corporate friendly SCOTUS for the next couple decades.

Roberts no longer qualifies as conservative?

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