Reply to Federal court rules police warrantless tracking of cell phones is unconstitutional

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Moderate liberal here.

Personally, I completely agree with the decision.  I hate the idea of being tracked, for all of the reasons discussed above.

However, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that noting my location constitutes "search" in violation of my expectation of privacy.  What exactly are they searching?  My location, which anyone around me can see?

I actually take more issue with Google, Amazon, Facebook and other tech companies tracking my whereabouts and everything else about me.  That really disturbs me.  I turn location services off on all possible cell apps, and removed FB entirely, but there are some apps that just can't get around it (like Google Maps - I use it for directions knowing full well that they are tracking everything).  I wish there were more regulations on this.[/quote]

The issue of the search is collection of information about you and whether a warrant should be required for the government to collect that information. In general, this area of the law has really reached to the power imbalance between law enforcement and the individual. The police could assign someone to follow you, and if they do that, it costs them resources. If the police use a tracking device, on the other hand, they can "fire and forget" and it costs them virtually nothing. That extends the power imbalance between the police and the individual, and that typically concerns the courts and makes them want to require police to get a warrant and prove that intrusion into your personal life is necessary and reasonable.

In addition to the imbalance, using a Stingray collects information from all cell phones in the range of the Stingray, not just the target phone, and that constitutes a "search" of everyone whose data is collected. [/quote]

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