Eleventh Circuit Disagrees with the Fifth in Protecting Cell-site Records

The Fifth Circuit had previously held that historical cell-site information was not protected by the Fourth Amendment. The Eleventh Circuit today disagreed with the Fifth Circuit and ruled that the Fourth Amendment does protect some facts which are deemed by them to be inherently private. The court has concluded that cell-site information may reveal certain personal or private facts about a person such as whether you are near a place of worship, a house of ill repute, the home of a lover or a pharmaceutical company. Since these facts are considered to be private by nature, the Eleventh Circuit held that the government would violate the reasonable expectation of privacy if they learn those facts upon collecting cell-site records from various cell phone providers. According to the court, the Fourth Amendment protects cell phone records even over obtaining GPS information which has been attached to a particular car. Data points can reveal private information and can become a Fourth Amendment "search" according to the courts.