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Cellphones Government Privacy United States

DOJ: We Don't Need a Warrant To Track You 259

GovTechGuy writes "The Department of Justice maintains it does not need a warrant to track an individual using location data captured from their cellphone. 'Cellphone location records are currently lumped under Title 1 and Title 2 of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (PL 99-508), which cover stored communications and call details. Accessing those types of information typically requires only a court order, rather than a warrant, as is required for the contents of a phone call or digital message under Title 3.' That has prompted Maine and Montana to pass laws banning warrantless cellphone tracking; unfortunately, Congress doesn't appear close to doing the same."
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DOJ: We Don't Need a Warrant To Track You

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  • by Baloroth ( 2370816 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2013 @05:53PM (#44312375)

    A warrant is a court order, yes, but a court order is not necessarily a warrant. Warrants generally have a lot stricter rules on when and how they are issued. Specifically, a search warrant requires probable cause. A court order does not.

  • by Proteus ( 1926 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2013 @06:01PM (#44312459) Homepage Journal

    No, according to them, that information isn't private enough to require a warrant. It still requires a court order to obtain, and it's not considered public information.

    If you're going to respond to a bad situation, you have to actually understand the real situation, or you're just going to get dismissed as ignorant.

  • by Intropy ( 2009018 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2013 @06:06PM (#44312511)
    Due process is the 5th. The 4th is "secure... against unreasonable searches and seizures... and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause...". In short, to search you need a warrant, and for a warrant you need probable cause. Now I suppose in order to obtain a warrant once you have probable cause that could be said to require due process of law.
  • Don't be Stupid (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rob Riggs ( 6418 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2013 @06:11PM (#44312569) Homepage Journal
    Thanks for trolling. They can (and do) track you based on triangulation to cell towers. GPS is not needed.
  • by BlueStrat ( 756137 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2013 @08:37PM (#44313635)

    >a foundational document which is immutable.

    According to Jefferson, it never was immutable.

    The constitution is amendable by it's own design.

    That's entirely different from what the OP was discussing in the way of tortured & twisted interpretations of the existing plain language to fit an ideological/political agenda and avoid having all those pesky serfs^W^W^W^W^Wcitizens involved in the process, acting as if their will matters.

    If the US Constitution is a "living and breathing document", then "rights" of any kind have no meaning and the government's power over the citizens is effectively unrestrained.

    Strat

  • by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2013 @09:53PM (#44314085)

    It doesn't matter. They are right. They do not need a warrant to track you. You know how we can confirm this? They have been tracking everyone. Gathering data on everyone. Violating the privacy and rights of everyone. Constitution and laws and ethics be damned. It doesn't matter. If our existing laws don't apply to them, then new laws won't, either. Make every law you want and their statement will still be correct... they will still not need a warrant to track you.

    Sort of the same way fenced-in "free speech zones" are fucking abhorrent and against the law . . . and yet deployed and enforced, anyway.

    I think any rational person sees how wrong all of this . . . but also how hopeless it is. The only option is to give up and accept it. That is exactly what they want, what they are counting on, and what will ultimately happen.

"Call immediately. Time is running out. We both need to do something monstrous before we die." -- Message from Ralph Steadman to Hunter Thompson

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