The U.S. Supreme Court Slowly Enters the 21st Century
Last week’s decision in Carpenter v. United States, a 5-4 decision that the government must obtain a court-authorized warrant for cell site location information (CSLI), is a small step toward recognizing privacy rights in an age of ever-expanding technology. Most people do not realize that their cell phones are capable of tracking their every movement - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As we move about, our cell phones ping off of the nearest cell tower. Several times a minute our cell phones contact the nearest cell tower. Our cell providers collect and store that information. Examining that information can reveal a person’s daily movements with a fair degree of accuracy, usually within hundreds of feet to a few miles. Each tower has time-stamped records for every cell phone that pinged off of it, and more specifically, which direction on the tower’s multiple receivers.