Judge Rules Blanket Search of Cell Tower Data Unconstitutional
a year ago
- #Privacy Rights
- #Fourth Amendment
- #Surveillance
- A Nevada judge ruled that 'tower dumps'—mass collection of cell tower data by law enforcement—are unconstitutional but allowed the evidence in this case due to 'good faith' exception.
- Tower dumps capture location data of all phones connected to a tower every seven seconds, potentially affecting tens of thousands of users per request.
- Cory Spurlock's defense argued the tower dump used in his case violated the Fourth Amendment, but the court upheld the evidence despite deeming the search unconstitutional.
- U.S. District Judge Miranda M. Du stated tower dumps require a warrant and constitute a 'general warrant' forbidden by the Fourth Amendment.
- This ruling marks the first time the Ninth Circuit addressed tower dump constitutionality, though a Mississippi judge reached a similar conclusion earlier.
- The Department of Justice appealed the Mississippi ruling, suggesting the issue may eventually reach the Supreme Court.
- In 2018, SCOTUS ruled in *Carpenter v. United States* that warrantless cell location data requests violate the Fourth Amendment but did not address tower dumps specifically.
- Spurlock's tower dump captured data from 1,686 users, none of whom consented to sharing their location information.