#geofencewarrants — Public Fediverse posts

Associated Press: A bank robber’s cellphone gave him away. Now the Supreme Court is hearing his case . “The geofence warrant police served on Google found that [Okello] Chatrie’s cellphone was among a handful of devices in the vicinity of the bank around the time it was robbed. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable […]

MinnPost: These warrants let police sweep up data from anyone near a crime scene. A bipartisan Minnesota bill says they should be illegal. . “Law enforcement can request data related to crime scenes – or more expansive areas – and work backwards to look for suspects. A group of bipartisan Minnesota lawmakers says they should be illegal except in emergency scenarios. They argue reverse […]

In a major decision federal #FifthCircuit #CourtofAppeals held that #geofence #warrants are “categorically prohibited by the #FourthAmendment.”
Court determined under Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Carpenter v. United States, individuals have reasonable expectation of #privacy in #location data implicated by #geofencewarrants.
Second, court found that even though investigators seek warrants for geofence location data, these searches are inherently #unconstitutional.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/federal-appeals-court-finds-geofence-warrants-are-categorically-unconstitutional

#Google #Android #Geofencing #Surveillance #GeofenceWarrants #LocationHistory: "Google’s announcement outlined three changes to how it will treat Location History data. First, going forward, this data will be stored, by default, on a user’s device, instead of with Google in the cloud. Second, it will be set by default to delete after three months; currently Google stores the data for at least 18 months. Finally, if users choose to back up their data to the cloud, Google will “automatically encrypt your backed-up data so no one can read it, including Google.”

All of this is fantastic news for users, and we are cautiously optimistic that this will effectively mean the end of geofence warrants. These warrants are dangerous. They threaten privacy and liberty because they not only provide police with sensitive data on individuals, they could turn innocent people into suspects. Further, they have been used during political protests and threaten free speech and our ability to speak anonymously, without fear of government repercussions. For these reasons, EFF has repeatedly challenged geofence warrants in criminal cases and worked with other groups (including tech companies) to push for legislative bans on their use."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/end-geofence-warrants