DoJ Says "Stingray" Cell Phone Tracking Device Falls Under 4th Amendment

[MuffyBee]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577014363024341028.html
Feds Shift Tracking Defense
Prosecutors in Arizona Case Drop Position That 'Stingray' Use Didn't Require Warrant
November 3, 2011


The U.S. Department of Justice now says its use of a cellphone-tracking device in a controversial Arizona case could be considered a "search" under the Fourth Amendment, a tactical move legal experts say is designed to protect the secrecy of the gadgets known as "stingrays."
For more than a year, federal prosecutors have argued in U.S. District Court that the use of the stingray device—which can locate a mobile phone even when it's not being used to make a call—wasn't a search, in part because the user had no reasonable expectation of privacy while using Verizon Wireless cellphone service. Under that argument, authorities wouldn't need to obtain a search warrant before using one of the devices.

 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/06/doj-stingray-cellphone-tracking-device-falls-under-fourth-amend/
DoJ: Stingray cellphone tracking device falls under Fourth Amendment, but don't ask about it
November 6, 2011

[alagary]

All the new technology sure makes it hard to draw a line about where the law falls. When the Fourth Admendment was written it probably took a week to get a message from Boston to New York.