Cellular Privacy: Supreme Court Rules to Protect Historical Cellphone Location Data

By: Ariana Morello On June 22, 2018 in Carpenter v. United States the United States Supreme Court held that police must have a warrant and show probable cause when retaining cell-site location information (CSLI), which is the information nearby towers gather from cell phones.  In a close 5-4 decision, the Court found that a cell phone user has a legitimate expectation of privacy and CSLI data obtained from a cell phone carrier company qualified as a “search” under the Fourth Amendment. Background of the Case  In this influential case, the Supreme Court addressed whether retaining a person’s historical cell-site information without probable cause violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures of property.  The defendant, Timothy Carpenter, was identified as one of several suspects in a series of robberies that took place in 2011. The prosecution was granted a court order under the Stored…

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