A federal appeals court has ruled law enforcement agencies can obtain location data on U.S. cellphone users without a warrant. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the practice of seizing the location data of phone calls from major telecoms even with no court order. The court’s majority okayed the practice on the grounds location data is a “business record” and therefore not protected by the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. A report last year from the American Civil Liberties Union found just a fraction of more than 200 police departments that admitted to tracking cellphones routinely obtained warrants. The tracking is said to be so commonplace that cellular providers are providing police with manuals outlining the range of data they store and the pricing for police to obtain it. Catherine Crump, an ACLU attorney, called the ruling “a big deal and a big blow to Americans’ privacy rights.”