Swordsmyth
09-22-2017, 12:31 AM
Today, the Washington DC Court of Appeals overturned a Superior Court conviction of a man who was located by police using a cell-site simulator, or Stingray, CBS News (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/d-c-court-rules-warrant-is-required-for-stingray-cell-phone-tracking/) reports. The court ruled that the defendant's Fourth Amendment rights were violated when law enforcement tracked down the suspect using his own cell phone without a warrant.
Stingrays work by pretending to be a cell tower and once they're brought close enough to a particular phone, that phone pings a signal off of them. The Stingray then grabs onto that signal and allows whoever's using it to locate the phone in question. These sorts of devices are used by a number of different agencies including the FBI (https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/19/federal-agents-used-a-stingray-to-track-an-immigrants-phone/), ICE (https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/20/ice-insists-does-not-use-stingrays-track-undocumented-immigrants/), the IRS (https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/01/irs-stingray-surveillance-search-warrant/) as well as police (https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/16/baltimore-police-stingray-phone-surveillance-fcc-violation/)officers (https://www.engadget.com/2016/02/11/nypd-stingray-use-cellphone-surveillance/).
In the ruling, the judges said (https://www.dccourts.gov/sites/default/files/2017-09/15-CF-322.pdf), "We thus conclude that under ordinary circumstances, the use of a cell-site simulator to locate a person through his or her cellphone invades the person's actual, legitimate, and reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her location information and is a search." They also said, "We agree with [the defendant] that the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it deployed the cell-site simulator against him without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause."
The ruling could affect ongoing and future cases as well as law enforcement's use of the technology.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-china-could-invade-north-233700458.html
Stingrays work by pretending to be a cell tower and once they're brought close enough to a particular phone, that phone pings a signal off of them. The Stingray then grabs onto that signal and allows whoever's using it to locate the phone in question. These sorts of devices are used by a number of different agencies including the FBI (https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/19/federal-agents-used-a-stingray-to-track-an-immigrants-phone/), ICE (https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/20/ice-insists-does-not-use-stingrays-track-undocumented-immigrants/), the IRS (https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/01/irs-stingray-surveillance-search-warrant/) as well as police (https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/16/baltimore-police-stingray-phone-surveillance-fcc-violation/)officers (https://www.engadget.com/2016/02/11/nypd-stingray-use-cellphone-surveillance/).
In the ruling, the judges said (https://www.dccourts.gov/sites/default/files/2017-09/15-CF-322.pdf), "We thus conclude that under ordinary circumstances, the use of a cell-site simulator to locate a person through his or her cellphone invades the person's actual, legitimate, and reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her location information and is a search." They also said, "We agree with [the defendant] that the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it deployed the cell-site simulator against him without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause."
The ruling could affect ongoing and future cases as well as law enforcement's use of the technology.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-china-could-invade-north-233700458.html