Feds OK to stalk phones

A court in Cincinnati, Ohio, has ruled that federal agents do not need to get a warrant before collecting people's whereabouts using their smartphones.

The US Six Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FBI was not in the wrong when in 2011 agents pulled the locational records of two men in a robbery investigation. Their whereabouts were recorded using the phone masts their handsets connected to, and the data handed over to the g-men by wireless carriers on request.

The judge in the case said that the locational information of the phones was no different from IP or postage mailing addresses, and as such law enforcement agencies did not need to obtain a warrant when requesting the data from phone carriers. ®