Highlighting once again America’s struggle with government surveillance and personal privacy in the digital age, the New Jersey Supreme Court announced “a new rule of law” on Thursday, forbidding police to obtain a suspect’s cellphone data without a warrant.
The decision comes in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leak of government secrets that revealed massive government surveillance programs. Among other things, the programs allow law enforcement officials to collect “metadata” from phone companies – a practice that has just been reauthorized by a secret US court that oversees intelligence activities.
The ruling also comes at a time when state courts and legislatures across the United States are grappling with the murky legal principles governing state laws about police surveillance and privacy. Breathtaking changes in technology mean that a GPS-enabled smart phone can now reveal razor-sharp details about a person’s movements, thus quickly changing traditional notions of privacy. Technological advancements have also made it easier for local police to obtain information from service providers.
via Cellphone tracking: Police must obtain warrants, N.J. court says – CSMonitor.com.
RichardWanke.Com 