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Mass phone tracking via cell tower dumps ruled unconstitutional


The case at the center of this ruling involves Cory Spurlock, who faces serious charges including conspiracy to distribute marijuana and alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire plot....

When the case reached court, Spurlock's defense team argued that the warrant authorizing the tower dump was overly broad, effectively allowing police to track the digital whereabouts of countless innocent people. In court, expert witnesses described how the data obtained could be used to reconstruct the movements and associations of every person whose phone connected to the targeted towers, raising concerns about mass surveillance and the erosion of privacy for ordinary citizens. However, the Carpenter ruling was narrowly tailored and did not directly address the legality of tower dumps or other forms of bulk data collection, leaving lower courts to wrestle with how the Fourth Amendment applies in these contexts.

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