{"id":1413,"date":"2018-06-22T15:46:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T23:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2018-07-01T09:42:01","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T17:42:01","slug":"the-supreme-court-scores-a-win-for-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2018\/06\/22\/the-supreme-court-scores-a-win-for-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court Scores a Win for Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, in a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court held<\/a> that the government must get a warrant to obtain records of where someone\u2019s cell phone has been. This might seem obvious, but it wasn\u2019t obvious to the four Supreme Court Justices who voted against today\u2019s decision. And, it wasn\u2019t obvious to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, whose opinion<\/a> claimed that people cannot expect the general location of their cell phones to remain private because they must know cell phone companies have this data.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we submitted an amicus brief<\/a> last year to encourage the Supreme Court to recognize that it no longer makes sense to assume that people give up their expectation of privacy when third parties handle their data. Today\u2019s Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Carpenter v. United States<\/i> sets the record straight and helps the Fourth Amendment keep up to date with the realities of our modern, internet-connected lives.<\/p>\n

For the majority of Americans, a cell phone and internet access are necessities, not options. \u201c The Supreme Court recognized that \u201c[c]ell phones . . . [are] indispensable to participation in modern society.\u201d It also held that it makes no sense to pretend that people \u201cvoluntarily\u201d give their location to cell phone companies when cell tower location information is increasingly vast, increasingly precise, and inherent to the way cell networks function. This is especially important \u201c[b]ecause location information is continually logged for all of the 400 million devices in the United States–not just those belonging to persons who might happen to come under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

We hope Carpenter v. United States <\/i>will have implications beyond just location data. The Supreme Court described it\u2019s decision as \u201ca narrow one,\u201d refusing to extend its rule to other forms of data. Still, this decision sets the stage for other courts to recognize that people have privacy expectations in the vast amounts of data that third-parties handle. \u00a0And further, that the government needs to meet the higher standard of review required by a warrant in order to access this data.<\/p>\n

At Mozilla, we understand that the Internet is an integral part of modern life, and that individuals\u2019 online privacy should be fundamental, not optional<\/a>. People rely on internet technology companies to facilitate the practical necessities of modern life, and Mozilla and many other technology companies actively work to preserve the privacy of user data. \u00a0We applaud the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to respect these efforts and keep the Fourth Amendment working for today\u2019s digital world[1].<\/p>\n

[1] Bonus legal history: \u00a0<\/b>There are a few seminal cases which have brought the Fourth Amendment into the digital age. In U.S. v. Jones<\/i> (2012), the Court decided it was unconstitutional to track a person\u2019s car with a GPS device without a warrant. Then, in Riley v. California<\/i> (2014), the Court held police could not search the data on a cellphone during an arrest without a warrant. This ruling recognizes that the government needs a warrant to get the whereabouts of an individual\u2019s location based on cell phones records.<\/p>\n

By Michael Feldman, Product Counsel\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo: Supreme Court<\/a> by Matt Wade<\/a> (CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, in a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court held that the government must get a warrant to obtain records of where someone\u2019s cell phone has been. 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