Summary Box: Appeals court considers whether warrants needed to track cell phone location

Summary Box: Phone location OK without warrants?

THE GOVERNMENT’S POSITION: Law enforcement agencies want the ability to track a person’s movements based on cell phone records, without evidence of criminal wrongdoing or a search warrant.

THE CONCERNS: Privacy groups say the information could reveal when someone goes to a religious service, medical clinic or political rally.

THE OUTCOME: Without making a ruling yet, one appellate judge seemed sympathetic to those concerns, wondering aloud what a government might do with such information.