[Infowarrior] - If NYPD cops want to snoop on your phone, they need a warrant, judge rules

[Richard Forno]

(Cue the technophobic whinings of Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance.   --rick)

If NYPD cops want to snoop on your phone, they need a warrant, judge rules

NY State Supreme Court: stingrays act as "an instrument of eavesdropping."

Cyrus Farivar - 11/17/2017, 5:03 AM

Another court tells police: Want to use a stingray? Get a warrant
A New York state judge has concluded that a powerful police surveillance tool known as a cell-site simulator, a device that spoofs legitimate mobile phone towers, is a "search" and therefore requires a warrant under most circumstances.

As a New York State Supreme Court judge in Brooklyn ruled earlier this month in an attempted murder case, New York Police Department officers should have sought a standard probable cause-driven warrant before using the invasive device.

The Empire State court joins others nationwide to reach this same conclusion. In September, the  District of Columbia Court of Appeals also found that stingrays normally require a warrant, as did a federal judge in Oakland, California back in August.

According to the New York Times, which first reported the case on Wednesday, People v. Gordon is believed to be the first stingray-related case related to the country’s largest city police force.

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/if-nypd-cops-want-to-snoop-on-your-phone-they-need-a-warrant-judge-rules/