A New York magistrate judge’s ruling ordering the federal government to...
A New York magistrate judge’s ruling ordering the federal government to institute privacy protections for innocent third parties when obtaining cellphone location information through so-called “tower dumps” is a “step forward,” said the American Civil Liberties Union in a blog…
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post (http://bit.ly/1osYWze) Monday. The ACLU disagreed with another aspect of U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis’ May 30 decision (case no. M-50) (http://1.usa.gov/TaoAzd) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Francis didn’t require authorities to show probable cause through obtaining a warrant when seeking “tower dump” records, ACLU noted. The practice, which involves getting location information for all cellphones from select towers during a set period of time, doesn’t constitute authorities tracking a person’s movements over a period of time, the decision said. Francis was the second federal judge to issue a public ruling on the practice, said the ACLU. The ruling involved a request in early May seeking permission to obtain AT&T, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless records for some cell towers near a New York City address over more than a four-hour period, noted ACLU. Saying thousands of people would likely have made phone calls in the area during the time period, ACLU said it opposed the request as “a highly invasive dragnet search.” Francis ordered the government to submit a plan to address the protection of private information of innocent third-parties whose data is disclosed to the government. The request for the records will be approved if the plan is sufficient, he said.