Warrantless cell phone tracking

[Geek-9pm]

From http://news.cnet.com/

Justice Dept. defends warrantless cell phone tracking.
In a novel privacy case, Obama administration tells an appeals court that police should be able to learn the locations of mobile devices without a search warrant.

More of the story:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10453214-38.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

[Computer Hope Admin]

Seems like to me too much abuse would come from this if they were to allow warrentless cell phone tracking.

[Geek-9pm]

Yes, I posted this topic here because it has an impact on anybody using a mobile computer, such as an iPhone. So they could monitor not just your cell phone activity but your computer activity.

[evilfantasy]

There are cases where warrants would hinder law enforcement so it's a two edged sword.

Think of where tracing a cell phone brought someone home alive rather than dead. Red tape might make stories like that impossible.

[patio]

Excellent point !
Still 2 edges however...
There really is no good answer.

[rthompson80819]

Actually, they do have to get a court order, it's just not called a search warrant, so there are some protections.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002703----000-.html

[evilfantasy]

Actually, they do have to get a court order, it's just not called a search warrant, so there are some protections.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002703----000-.html

I figured there was some hoop to jump through.

In every day life there are those who will abuse the rules, be it a regular citizen or a government official. The trick is keeping it in check and not tapping into grannies email just because her bandwidth jumped up for a few months.