IP Democracy: Government's Authority to Track Cell Phones Curtailed

Courtesy of Tech Law Prof Blog, two recent decisions by magistrate judges have curtailed the government’s authority to track an individual’s location by obtaining data from wireless phone companies. The issue is not whether law enforcement authorities have the right to track cell phone usage, but whether the government has to show probable cause to do so.

In the first decision, Magistrate Stephen William Smith from the Southern District of Texas ruled against the Department of Justice and said that authorities have to show probable cause before tracking cell phone usage. In a later decision, federal magistrate judge James Orenstein in New York denied the Justice Department’s request to track someone’s cell phone location without probable cause. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been actively following, and participating in, these cases and has more information here and here.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 28, 2005 7:32 AM to IP Democracy