Cell Phone Tracking

(Trenton, New Jersey)

In a unanimous ruling published Thursday stemming from a 2006 burglary case, the state's Supreme Court directed that beginning in 30 days, all law enforcement officers must get a search warrant based on probable cause if they want access to cellphone locating data. Since 2010, police have had to satisfy a lower standard of demonstrating there are "reasonable grounds" to believe the information would be relevant to an investigation.

An attorney for the California-based privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation said it's the first time a state supreme court has ruled on that specific issue. Federal courts have split on whether cellphone users have the right to privacy in public places, but several cases are pending in federal appeals courts as well as in other state courts, according to Hanni Fakhoury.

"The ruling definitely is not binding in any state outside New Jersey, but it's persuasive," Fakhoury said Friday. "As a litigator I would tell a court, `Look, New Jersey did it and here are the reasons for that ruling and you should adopt this.'"

Warrants for cell phone tracking should be required nationwide.