The ruling does not cover cell phone data or GPS devices that deliver data to a third party. Cell phone records are not the papers or effects of the person bei

The ruling does not cover cell phone data or GPS devices that deliver data to a third party. Cell phone records are not the papers or effects of the person being investigated, they belong to the cell phone company. The Supreme Court "consistently has held that a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties."(442 US 735,743-744)[1] That quote is from the Court's ruling in a case that was specifically about police getting a record of telephone calls that a suspect made, Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979)[2]. Congress laid out rules for police obtaining such records in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986[3]. The ECPA doesn't specifically mention cell phone location information (since this was 1986), but it does include "name; address; local and long distance telephone connection records, or records of session times and durations; length of service (including start date) and types of service utilized; telephone or instrument number or other subscriber number or identity, including any temporarily assigned network address; and means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number)." A court order may be issued under section 2703(d) of the ECPA[4] "only if the governmental entity offers specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that … the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation." This is a lower standard than for a search warrant. A warrant requires "probable cause", that is "information sufficient to warrant a prudent person's belief that … evidence of a crime or contraband would be found in a search". [1] http://supreme.justia.com/us/442/735/case.html#743 http://supreme.justia.com/us/442/735/case.html#743 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_v._Maryland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_v._Maryland [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Communications_Privacy_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Communications_Priva... [4] http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title18/html/USCODE-2010-title18-partI-chap121-sec2703.htm http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title18/html/USCODE...