Accessing Cell Phone Location Information
The New York Times is reporting about a company called Securus Technologies that gives police the ability to track cell phone locations without a warrant:
The service can find the whereabouts of almost any cellphone in the country within seconds. It does this by going through a system typically used by marketers and other companies to get location data from major cellphone carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, documents show.
Another article.
Boing Boing post.
Alejandro • May 16, 2018 7:01 AM
According to the Supreme Court, if the government puts a GPS tracker on you, your car, or any of your personal effects, it counts as a search—and is therefore protected by the Fourth Amendment and requires a warrant approved by a judge.
OR, they can send a note on letterhead and get the same info over the phone from Securus.
That’s what rots my socks. Police jump from one technology to the next and so long as the Supreme Court doesn’t specifically BAN the method, they do it. I call it exempting themselves from the rule of law. And, at least it’s unethical.
Will police stop doing this now they have been found out, and despite what the SC says?
I’ve already answered that question in this post.