Find Out If Cops in Your State Need a Warrant to Track Your Phone

It's no secret that the law is slow to adapt to new technologies—it's always been that way. But the advent of the cellphone has thrown a monkey wrench into American privacy laws, which were written many years before iPhones and Androids were even conceived.

As a result, judges across the country are struggling to balance the needs of cops and feds, who need access to information, and the privacy rights of cellphone owners.

Cellphone tracking has been one of the main topics of contention and controversy in the last few years. The US government has long argued that you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy on your historical cellphone location data, because that data is stored by your telephone company. Meanwhile, privacy advocates argue this is very sensitive information that should require a warrant.

In the last few years, some states, such as Montana, Maine, and more recently California, have passed laws requiring local and state police to get a warrant to access cellphone location data, both historical and in real-time. These laws, however, don't compel federal law enforcement agencies, and some states only protect data about where you are now, not where you have been in the past.

At the same time, some lower courts throughout the country have ruled that people have an expectation of privacy in this kind of data and thus cops need a warrant. But rulings on this issue have fallen on both sides, and as a result, your privacy depends very much on what state you're in. Experts believe this can only end with a Supreme Court ruling, even though on Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear one case that hinged on this matter.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has put together a map that shows just how fractured the law on cellphone tracking is around the United States.