Federal Court Rules No Warrant Is Needed To Obtain Cell Phone Records

Today’s bad news on the privacy front:

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an order by a Houston federal judge who had said cellphone data is constitutionally protected from intrusion and can only be acquired with a search warrant.

The appeals court in New Orleans said such data is a business record that belongs to the cellphone provider. The court said that, under the Stored Communications Act, authorities have the option of obtaining a court order — which has a lower legal standard than a search warrant. With a court order, authorities only have to demonstrate there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the information would be relevant to an investigation.

Federal Court Rules No Warrant Is Needed To Obtain Cell Phone Records.

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