CA11: In a case of first impression, “cell site location information is within the subscriber’s reasonable expectation of privacy.”

In an interesting and thorough analysis, the Eleventh Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit sitting by designation, “hold[s] that cell site location information is within the subscriber’s reasonable expectation of privacy.” The court also discussed, without applying, the “mosaic theory.” The court notes this is a case of first impression by any appellate court, but it seems to create a conflict. United States v. Davis, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 10854 (11th Cir. June 11, 2014):

The United States further argues that cell site location information is less protected than GPS data because it is less precise. We are not sure why this should be significant. We do not doubt that there may be a difference in precision, but that is not to say that the difference in precision has constitutional significance. While it is perhaps possible that information could be sufficiently vague as to escape the zone of reasonable expectation of privacy, that does not appear to be the case here. The prosecutor at trial stressed how the cell phone use of the defendant established that he was near each of six crime scenes. While committing a crime is certainly not within a legitimate expectation of privacy, if the cell site location data could place him near those scenes, it could place him near any other scene. There is a reasonable privacy interest in being near the home of a lover, or a dispensary of medication, or a place of worship, or a house of ill repute. Again, we do not see the factual distinction as taking Davis’s location outside his expectation of privacy. That information obtained by an invasion of privacy may not be entirely precise does not change the calculus as to whether obtaining it was in fact an invasion of privacy.

Finally, the government argues that Davis did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy because he had theretofore surrendered that expectation by exposing his cell site location to his service provider when he placed the call. The government correctly notes that “the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the obtaining of information revealed to a third party and conveyed by him to government authorities ….” United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435, 443 (1976). In Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979), at the request of law enforcement authorities, a telephone company installed a pen register to record numbers dialed from the defendant’s telephone. The Smith Court held that telephone users had no subjective expectation of privacy in dialed telephone numbers contained in telephone companies’ records. Id. at 742-44. While the government’s position is not without persuasive force, it does not ultimately prevail.

The Third Circuit considered this argument in In re Electronic Communications Service to Disclose, supra. As that circuit noted, the Supreme Court in Smith reasoned that phone subscribers “assumed the risk that the company would reveal to police the numbers [they] dialed.” 442 U.S. at 744. See also 620 F.3d at 304. The reasoning in Smith depended on the proposition that “a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties,” 442 U.S. at 743-44. The Third Circuit went on to observe that “a cell phone customer has not ‘voluntarily’ shared his location information with a cellular provider in any meaningful way.” That circuit further noted that “it is unlikely that cell phone customers are aware that their cell phone providers collect and store historical location information.” 620 F.3d at 317 (emphasis added). Therefore, as the Third Circuit concluded, “when a cell phone user makes a call, the only information that is voluntarily and knowingly conveyed to the phone company is the number that is dialed, and there is no indication to the user that making that call will also locate the caller.” Id. Even more persuasively, “when a cell phone user receives a call, he hasn’t voluntarily exposed anything at all.” Id. at 317-18.

Supportive of this proposition is the argument made by the United States to the jury. The prosecutor stated to the jury “that obviously Willie Smith, like [Davis], probably had no idea that by bringing their cell phones with them to these robberies, they were allowing [their cell service provider] and now all of you to follow their movements on the days and at the times of the robberies ….” Just so. Davis has not voluntarily disclosed his cell site location information to the provider in such a fashion as to lose his reasonable expectation of privacy.

In short, we hold that cell site location information is within the subscriber’s reasonable expectation of privacy. The obtaining of that data without a warrant is a Fourth Amendment violation. Nonetheless, for reasons set forth in the next section of this opinion, we do not conclude that the district court committed a reversible error.

II. The Leon Exception

. . . At that time, there was no governing authority affecting the constitutionality of this application of the Act. There is not even allegation that any actor in the process evidenced anything other than good faith. We therefore conclude that under the Leon exception, the trial court’s denial of the motions to suppress did not constitute reversible error.

As to the mosaic theory:

Jones, as we noted, involved the movements of the defendant’s automobile on the public streets and highways. Indeed, the district court allowed the defendant’s motion to suppress information obtained when the automobile was not in public places. The circuit opinion and the separate opinions in the Supreme Court concluded that a reasonable expectation of privacy had been established by the aggregation of the points of data, not by the obtaining of individual points. Such a mosaic theory is not necessary to establish the invasion of privacy in the case of cell site location data.