EFF: Courts May Require Search Warrants for Cell Phone Location Records

Re:EFF: Courts May Require Search Warrants for Cell Phone Lo... by btilly on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @07:06PM (#1670406)

Does anyone know whether this ruling affects the use of cell phone location records in civil cases?

For example these records have been used in divorce cases to provide evidence of affairs. (If two cell phones have a repeated tendency to meet each other in motel rooms, this is evidence that the carriers of said cell phones did likewise.) Does this ruling on what the police can do affect that at all?

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Re:EFF: Courts May Require Search Warrants for Cell Phone Lo... by darrikmazey on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @09:49PM (#1670740)

In a civil case, why would the police be involved at all? IANAL, but I have been married three times, and I can't imagine a judge in a divorce case wasting time with cell phone records. However, I live in a no-fault divorce state, so my experience may not translate.

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Re:EFF: Courts May Require Search Warrants for Cell Phone Lo... by btilly on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @10:53PM (#1670858)

The police aren't involved in that case.

If the divorce is contested (which can happen in a no-fault state), the lawyers for either side can send subpoenas to anyone they like looking for relevant records, and a standard one to send is to the cellphone company. Which can reveal a lot.

My question is whether a sufficient right to the privacy of those records has been established to block those requests in principle.

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