Supreme Court ruling updates privacy law for a digital age, saying police need a warrant to get cellphone tracking records
WASHINGTON - In a victory for privacy in the digital era, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Constitution protects tracking data from a cellphone, requiring police to have a search warrant to obtain cell tower records that can show a person's movement over days or weeks.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote, said the Fourth Amendment protects the tracking data, even though these records are collected and held by a private company, not by the individual who is the target of the search.
Privacy advocates hailed the decision as a landmark that updates the law to keep pace with the way modern technology has vastly expanded the amount of data that can be easily compiled and stored.
This nation of 326 million people has 396 million cellphone accounts, Chief Justice John G. Roberts noted, and each of those phones regularly sends signals that record the movement of its often-unwitting user.
The "seismic shifts
