A Federal Court has ruled that users using a neighbors open WiFi AP do not have an expectation of privacy and can be located by police without using a search warrant.
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blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/1 ··· warrant/A federal court in Pittsburgh has ruled that the government can track you to your location, sans search warrant, using free anti-moocher software.
The courts have ruled that Internet subscribers have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their IP address
Pittsburgh ruling, made earlier this month, is the first to address the privacy rights of people who piggyback on their neighbors unsecured wireless networks.
In the Pittsburgh case, police used a program called Moocherhunter and a directional antenna to find a man suspected of downloading child pornography. The program allows users to measure the distance between a wireless router and the devices connected to it.
Someone nearby, a neighbor maybe, had been mooching the subscribers wireless Internet and using the connection to download child pornography, they reckoned.
Police used Moocherhunter to find other devices connected to the subscribers wireless router, which led them to Richard Stanley, who lived across the street from the subscriber. Police then used the Moocherhunter information to obtain a warrant to search Mr. Stanleys home, and based on evidence they found, Mr. Stanley was indicted in November 2011 for possessing child pornography.
Mr. Stanley sought to suppress the evidence, arguing that police needed a warrant to use Moocherhunter to locate him. U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti found that Mr. Stanley could have no reasonable expectation of privacy in the signal he was sending to or receiving from the wireless router.