#fourthamendment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #fourthamendment, aggregated by home.social.
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Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a professor at the George Washington University Law School whose scholarship has focused on #policing, #BigData #surveillance & the #FourthAmendment, said Thursday’s shifts were “better than the opposite” but called for further scrutiny of the #technology in the form of “sustained democratic engagement with the rules & judicial checks on access at a minimum.”
#Flock #law #privacy #InfoSec #immigration #MassSurveillance #tech #AbuseOfPower #deflock
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In June 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Chatrie v. United States that police accessing your cell phone Location History from Google is a Fourth Amendment search. Justice Kagan: 'An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone's location.'
The Court did NOT rule that geofence warrants are unconstitutional. It established the threshold: accessing this data IS a search. Whether a specific warrant is reasonable (probable cause, particularity) was sent back to the lower court.
On August 5, 2026, Judge Carlton Reeves (S.D. Mississippi) extended that logic to tower dumps - warrants that grab data from all devices connecting to a cell tower. He ruled them 'per se unconstitutional general warrants,' citing both Chatrie and the Fifth Circuit's Smith decision. 'The Government cannot have access to an entire haystack because it may contain a needle.'
The ruling may also affect Flock Safety's ALPR network (90,000+ cameras, 20 billion plate reads/month). A Virginia court already allowed a Fourth Amendment challenge to Flock to proceed. But Flock argues Chatrie actually helps them - the Court distinguished continuous cell-phone tracking from 'public-movements-only technology' on public roads. That legal question is unresolved.
Read more:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/court-rules-that-law-enforcements-use-of-geofence-warrant-was-a-search/
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6013559-mississippi-judge-declares-towers-dumps-unconstitutional/ -
‘Tower dump’ warrants ruled #unconstitutional
A "tower dump" involves #cellphone companies providing #lawenforcement with access to the time and location data of all mobile devices connected to a cell tower
"That is an unreasonable search under the #FourthAmendment," judge concluded
The order repeatedly referenced the Supreme Court's recent decision in Chatrie v United States, in which the majority held that #geofence #warrants require constitutional #privacy protections
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6013559-mississippi-judge-declares-towers-dumps-unconstitutional/ -
Getting the Flock Out of Ord, Nebraska
The county seat of my boyhood summers just voted, five to nothing, to pull its surveillance cameras off the poles, the first town in Nebraska to do it. The reasons cut deeper than the invoice. Ord, Nebraska sits eleven miles up the North Loup River valley from the village of North Loup, where I spent the summers of my boyhood on my grandfather's place, and in the mental geography of a ten-year-old those eleven miles separated the known world from its capital. North Loup had a few hundred souls, a grain elevator, and Popcorn Days. Ord had the Valley County courthouse with a square built around it, implement lots, storefront commerce enough to dazzle a village kid, and a radio station whose call letters spell the valley itself: K-N-L-V, North Loup Valley, on the air at 1060 since 1965 with farm markets in the morning and high school ball at night. When my grandfather's rooftop antenna strained for television it caught one signal, 10/11 out of Lincoln, and that was the extent of the visible world. Ord was "town." You washed up a little before going. […]https://bolesblogs.com/2026/08/07/getting-the-flock-out-of-ord-nebraska/
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#Flock Cameras Violate #Highway Safety Standards As Well As The #FourthAmendment!
Flock #surveillance cameras can pose a crash risk for drivers, #US experts say
Roadside safety advocates say some automated license plate readers may not meet highway safety standards
The metal rod supporting the #ALPR has no breakaway plate – a safety feature close to the ground that, in the case of a collision with a vehicle, sees the pole snap, reducing impact experienced by the vehicle.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/controversial-flock-ai-surveillance-camera-risk -
As a sysadmin and cybersecurity professional, every single one of my devices has a duress mechanism in place. 🔒💥
Attempt a forced access or coercive search? All data gets wiped instantly, and firmware goes into lock-out. Don't think for a second I won't trigger it.
If law enforcement has an issue with defensive privacy controls, tough luck. I couldn't care less. Protect against illegal search and seizure—end of story. 🛑📱
#GrapheneOS #CyberSecurity #SysAdmin #InfoSec #Privacy #DigitalRights #Encryption #FourthAmendment #TechNews
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The #FourthCircuit Says #Border Agents Can #Search Your #Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required
The Fourth Circuit issued a disappointing opinion in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, a case in which @eff filed an amicus brief, alongside the national #ACLU, its #Maryland , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , and #Virginia affiliates, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (#NACDL ).
We argued that electronic device searches at the border should require a #warrant based on probable cause, but at minimum, regardless of whether an officer searches by hand or with #forensic software that plugs into a device and downloads its entire contents for search, the same #FourthAmendment standard should apply to all device searches at the border.
#privacy -
US Police Now Armed With #Israeli #Spy Vans Simulating #MobilePhone Towers
If you thought #Flock was bad check out #Falconet. Falconet from Israeli company #Cognyte serves as a cell tower simulator that intercepts cell phone data from all devices within range. #Police mount these systems in Tahoes so the vehicles can collect information while driving through areas without any direct interaction with targets. This mobile approach generates ongoing records of phone locations and communications for everyone nearby rather than only suspects, which creates comprehensive movement profiles and bypasses traditional #warrant requirements under the #FourthAmendment.
#privacy #security #surveillance -
Tech Oligarchs Are Helping DHS Set Up Authoritarian Surveillance State
The Trump administration is supercharging surveillance in an unprecedented way, from the expansion of facial recognition technology to buying Americans’ data from third-party data brokers and building tools of mass surveillance for ICE, we’re witnessing an intense assault on our foundational Fourth Amendment rights. #Trump #privacy #surveillance #MassSurveilance #FourthAmendment #DHS #ICE #illiberal #authoritarian #surveilanceState #repression #warOnTerror #Prairieland #techOligarchy #ElonMusk #PeterThiel #MarcAndreessen
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WEBCAST 9 JUL 16:00 UTC - Re-Drawing the Privacy Line: Chatrie's Legislative and Oversight Implications
The Congressional Internet Caucus Academy hosts a Rayburn lunch panel breaking down the Chatrie v US decision on geofence warrants, location data & the Fourth Amendment, with Jennifer Huddleston (Cato), Jake Laperruque (@CenDemTech) & Paul Taske (NetChoice).
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"The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that people have an expectation of privacy from the government as their mobile devices track them throughout their daily activities, even when that information is shared with companies like Google and Apple.
The 6-3 decision in Chatrie v. United States extends Fourth Amendment protections to data that people hand over to tech companies, meaning police need a warrant to obtain it. Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas dissented.
The Trump administration argued that users did not have an expectation of privacy after voluntarily sharing their location data with companies like Google.
“An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information — even though for only a limited time, and from a third-party tech company,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority.
The case involves a 2019 bank robbery in Virginia, where police arrested Okello Chatrie after using a geofence warrant to locate all devices near the scene of the crime."
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/29/supreme-court-location-data-ruling-00979929
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This is a privacy victory. It deserves to be celebrated. The Supreme Court ruled that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment, 6–3.
However, there’s a hidden detail that is worth flagging. And it’s not good.
This ruling arose from Chatrie v United States. Google gave generic cell phone records to the cops. No specificity means unconstitutional. Maybe.
The federal judge on the case agreed that it was unconstitutional. But she allowed evidence from the violation to be used anyway. Why? She cited that “even if there had been a violation of the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement officials had acted in good faith.”
In. Good. Faith.
This translates to “cops can violate the constitution if we believe their intentions are good.”
How many cops do you know who act in good faith?
#FourthAmendment #4thAmendment #Privacy #BigTech #SCOTUS #ChatrieVUnitedStates #Constitution #AbolishThePolice
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[en] Effects of #Technology on #Privacy Interests
"That [US #Fourth] #Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches or seizures of persons, houses, papers, and effects. Yet it is undeniable that #technological advances enable the police to pry into formerly #private areas in ways unimaginable to the drafters of the Bill of Rights."
"... [US] Supreme Court has updated the Fourth Amendment to #limit #unrestrained #police searches that draw on new technologies."
"... the Fourth Amendment requires a reasonable search, and generally requires a #warrant, when the government seeks to #compel the production of information from a service provider about an individual’s #location generated by his #phone." ...
https://www.justsecurity.org/145214/chatrie-fourth-amendment-supreme-court/
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⚖️ The Supreme Court just ended its term with some of the most consequential rulings in a generation — overturning a 91-year-old precedent on presidential power, protecting the Federal Reserve, upholding mail ballot grace periods, letting the E. Jean Carroll judgment stand, and expanding Fourth Amendment digital privacy rights. All in one day.
What it means for every American — and what comes next — at The Democracy Advocate.
🔗 https://thedemocracyadvocate.com/news-to-know/supreme-court/supreme-court-reshapes-executive-power/
#SupremeCourt #SCOTUS #ExecutivePower #ElectionLaw #FourthAmendment #FederalReserve #HumphreysExecutor #Democracy #Accountability #USPolitics -
#SupremeCourt ruling guts government’s use of #geofence #warrants
The #FourthAmendment protects a user’s “location history,” the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The same logic already applied to a cellphone’s #tracking , and the high court found “no good reason exists to reach a different result for Location History” collected by third parties like #Google.
Split 6-3, the majority agreed that the government needs a #warrant and must show reasonable cause to turn a phone's location-tracking services into a government #surveillance tool.
#privacy -
Building a detailed target profile from public behavioral data used to require analyst time and domain expertise. Both constraints are
being removed by the same capability change that mapped an ICS environment from scratch in one session this week.Commercial surveillance infrastructure was already built for scale. #AI just makes operating it against individuals faster and cheaper.
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https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
#SeattleShield #GlobalShieldNetwork #InfraGard #Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #ICE #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #CyberSecurity #SPD #Amazon #Facebook #Meta #SeattlePolice #DBIAServices #ABM #ABMSecurityServices #NetSentinal #BlueLeaks
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TL;DR:
A federal highway bill amendment would cut funding to states and cities unless they shut down automated license plate tracking programs, effectively banning the tech nationwide except for toll collection, over privacy and surveillance concerns.
#Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #LicensePlateReaders #ALPR #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #Cybersecurity #EFF
