United States District Court
Northern District of California
Case5:15-xr-90304-HRL Document30 Filed07/29/15 Page19 of 46
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in the Post-Snowden Era 32 (2014), available at http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/11/PI_
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PublicPerceptionsofPrivacy_111214.pdf). This figure is higher than the percentage of individuals
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surveyed who consider their relationship history, religious or political views, or the content of
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their text messages to be sensitive. Id. at 2-3. In a 2012 survey, Pew found that smartphone
5
owners typically take precautions to protect access to their mobile data, with nearly one-third of
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them responding that they had turned off the location tracking feature on their phone due to
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concerns over who might access that information. See Jan Lauren Boyles et al., Pew Research
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Internet & Am. Life Project, Privacy and Data Management on Mobile Devices 3-4, 8 (2012),
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available at http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Mobile
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PrivacyManagement.pdf. Further, a 2013 survey conducted on behalf of the Internet company
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TRUSTe found that 69% of American smart phone users did not like the idea of being tracked.
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David Deasy, TRUSTe Study Reveals Smartphone Users More Concerned About Mobile Privacy
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Than Brand or Screen Size, TRUSTe Blog (Sept. 5, 2013), http://www.truste.com/blog/
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2013/09/05/truste-study-reveals-smartphone-users-more-concerned-about-mobile-privacy-than-
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brand-or-screen-size/. The government does not dispute this evidence, which the Court properly
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considers. See Riley, 134 S. Ct. at 2490 (relying on survey data demonstrating the ubiquity of cell
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phones).
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This survey data is all the more salient because cell phone users who take affirmative
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measures to protect their location information may still generate CSLI that the government can
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obtain. EFF cites Pew surveys from 2012 showing that 30% of all smart phone owners turned off
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location tracking on their phones while “46% of teenagers turned location services off.” EFF Br.
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at 3. Turning off location services, however, does not preclude CSLI from being generated. As
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the ACLU explains, “many smartphones include a location privacy setting that, when enabled,
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prevents applications from accessing the phone’s location. But this setting has no impact upon
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carriers’ ability to learn the cell sector in use.” ACLU Br. at 13. In other words, even though a
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user may demonstrate a subjective expectation of privacy by disabling an app’s location
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Case No. 15-XR-90304-HRL-1(LHK)
ORDER AFFIRMING DENIAL OF APPLICATION FOR HISTORICAL CELL SITE LOCATION
INFORMATION
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