GALVESTON, Texas — Federal authorities lawfully seized iPhone metadata to locate a man accused of uploading child pornography, a federal court has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa declined last week to suppress evidence that was taken from an iPhone 4. That evidence included metadata to identify the GPS coordinates where the photo had been taken.
That metadata led FBI agents to the home of defendant Donald Post, who then admitted to taking that photo, as well as others, of a four-year-old girl who had recently stayed at his home.
Post contends that even though he had uploaded the image to a website, he retained a privacy interest in that image’s metadata that law enforcement invaded in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.
The sexually explicit photo was posted on a website “primarily dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography and the discussion of matters pertinent to incest and pedophilia.”
[…] XBIZ: Court OKs Seizure of iPhone Metadata to Track Child Porn […]