Obtaining telephone toll records pursuant to a subpoena is a routine and lawful investigative step used by U.S. law enforcement and is generally regarded as not violating an individual's expectation of privacy.
September 27, 2023
high
legal
Legal characterization of subpoenas for telephone toll records in criminal investigations.
Federal prosecutors can use a grand jury subpoena to obtain telephone toll records as part of criminal investigations.
September 27, 2023
high
procedural
Mechanism by which investigators may acquire telephone metadata in U.S. federal criminal investigations.
Toll data collection in criminal investigations is commonly limited to a narrowly tailored, short date range focused on telephonic activity immediately surrounding the incident under investigation.
high
procedural
Limiting the temporal scope of metadata collection is used to reduce breadth of data gathered and target relevant communications.