A U.S. appeals court said law enforcement does not need to obtain a warrant before obtaining location data from wireless network operators.
The decision stems from an appeal based on a Baltimore case involving armed robberies from 2011. Citing a decades-old idea suggesting consumers routinely allow their phone service provider to know their location, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, reversed a divided opinion from last year.
The majority (12-3) opinion held that “Anyone who has stepped outside to ‘get a signal,’ or has warned a caller of a potential loss of service before entering an elevator, understands, on some level, that location matters.”
A ruling last year from the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court agreed that no warrant is needed. The Supreme Court has refused to review similar cases. A lawyer for the ACLU argued that the matter has not been finalized by the courts.
