Cell Site Location Data and Nontrespassory Surveillance after U.S. v. Jones

Presented at HOPE Number Nine (2012), July 15, 2012, 3 p.m. (60 minutes).

With the rise of smartphones, the government’s use of cell site location data to pinpoint our exact location has grown more widespread (and precise) over time. For years, courts permitted the government to get this location data without a search warrant. And judges that fought against the government’s attempts at getting this data were met with an unfortunate reality of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: we don’t have any privacy in data we turn over to third parties, like cell phone providers. The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in U.S. v. Jones however, presented a “sea change” in the law of warrantless surveillance, calling into question the future viability of the third party doctrine. This talk will review the law of location data, go in depth into how Jones calls this law into question, and conclude with the steps we need to take in the future in order to safeguard our privacy.


Presenters:

  • Hanni Fakhoury
    Hanni Fakhoury is a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on the intersection of technology and criminal law. Hanni previously worked as a federal public defender in San Diego for close to four years, where he served as a copy editor for the 2010 edition of Defending a Federal Criminal Case. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of Barristers for his excellence in written and oral advocacy. Hanni is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

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