Google Amicus Brief, supra note 11, at 12. at 614. 2017). Google Amicus Brief, supra note 11, at 1213. Tex. Stanford v. Texas, 379 U.S. 476, 481 (1965). Geofence warrants issued to federal authorities amounted to just 4% of those served on Google. Geofencing is used in advanced location-based services to determine when a device being tracked is within or has exited a geographic boundary. even if probable cause requirements are relaxed in the electronic context,148148. The geofence warrant meant that police were asking Google for information on all the devices that were near the location of an alleged crime at the approximate time it occurred, Price explained. MetLife, Inc. v. Fin. See Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551, 560 (2004); see also Orin S. Kerr, Ex Ante Regulation of Computer Search and Seizure, 96 Va. L. Rev. See id. Angela Lang/CNET. R. Crim. Some have suggested that geofence warrants should be treated like wiretaps. Why this time? Law enforcement agencies frequently require Google to provide user data while forbidding it from notifying users that it has revealed or plans to reveal their data.55. See Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2217 (2018) (Whether the Government employs its own surveillance technology . Spy Cams Reveal the Grim Reality of Slaughterhouse Gas Chambers. See Sidney Fussell, Creepy Geofence Finds Anyone Who Went Near a Crime Scene, Wired (Sept. 4, 2020, 7:00 AM), https://www.wired.com/story/creepy-geofence-finds-anyone-near-crime-scene [https://perma.cc/PC3Q-ZCMG]. agent[s] of the government not only when they produce the final list of names to law enforcement but also when they search their entire databases in order to produce these names.8181. There has been a dramatic increase in the use of geofence warrants by law enforcement in the U.S. Across all 50 states, geofence requests to Google increased from 941 in 2018 to 11,033 in 2020, accounting for a significant portion of all requests the company receives from law enforcement. 27 27. Here's Techdirt's coverage of two consecutive rejections of a geofence warrant published in June 2020. March 15, 2022. Google provides the more specific informationlike an email address or the name of the account holderfor the users on the narrower list. Many are rendered useless due to Googles slow response time, which can take as long as six months because of Sensorvaults size and the large number of warrants that Google receives.112112. 20 M 297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *3 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020) (noting that particularity is inversely related to the quality and breadth of probable cause). If a geofence warrant constitutes a search, two places are searched: (1) the companys location history records and (2) the geographic area and temporal scope delineated by the warrant. Apple will only provide content in response to a search warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause, or customer consent. at 117. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Geofence warrants are helping law enforcement agencies solve crimes using your cell phone's location data. applies to these warrants. It is unclear whether the data collected is stored indefinitely, see Webster, supra note 5 (suggesting that it is), but there are strong constitutional arguments that it should not be, see United States v. Ganias, 824 F.3d 199, 21518 (2d Cir. Id. Va. June 14, 2019). Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373, 385 (2014). IV. to ensure that law enforcement across the country does not continue to abuse geofence warrants. The Things Seized. 20 M 525, 2020 WL 6343084 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 29, 2020). and balances two competing interests. But California's OpenJustice dataset, where law enforcement agencies are required by state law to disclose executed geofence warrants or requests for geofence information, tells a completely different story.. A Markup review of the state's data between 2018 and 2020 found only 41 warrants that could clearly constitute a geofence warrant. The difference between a tower dump and step one of Googles framework is obvious: the tower dump involves only data tied to the cell towers location, while Google searches all of its location data even though none of it may be within the parameters of a geofence warrant. Google uses its stored location data to personalize advertisements, estimate traffic times, report on how busy restaurants are, and more. 20 M 392, 2020 WL 4931052, at *13 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 24, 2020). Third, and finally, Google provides account-identifying information, such as the first names, last names, and email addresses of the users.7676. A geo-fence warrant (also known as a geofence warrant or a reverse location warrant) is a search warrant issued by a court to allow law enforcement to search a database to find all active mobile devices within a particular geo-fence area. 2012). The Act does not mention sealing, and the government has conceded there are no default sealing or nondisclosure provisions.6161. Google Told Them, MPRnews (Feb. 7, 2019, 9:10 PM), https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/07/google-location-police-search-warrants [https://perma.cc/Q2ML-RBHK] (describing a six-month nondisclosure order). Garrison, 480 U.S. at 84 (quoting United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 824 (1982)); see also Pharma I, No. People v. Weaver, 909 N.E.2d 1195, 1199 (N.Y. 2009), quoted in United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400, 415 (2012) (Sotomayor, J., concurring). See id. By contrast, geofence warrants require private companies to actively search through their entire databases to provide new and refined datasets in response to a warrant. The figures, published Thursday, reveal that Google has received thousands of geofence warrants each quarter since 2018, and at times accounted for about one-quarter of all U.S. warrants that . There is also often the risk of obtaining information about individuals in their homes an intrusion that has always been unreasonable without particularized probable cause.124124. It should be a last resort, because its so invasive.. In other words, because probable cause ensures that any intrusion on privacy is justified by necessity, it considers whether there is a probability that evidence of illegal activity will be found in a specific area.149149. at 221718; Jones, 565 U.S. at 429 (Alito, J., concurring); id. 2019). Particularity was constitutionalized in response to these reviled general warrants.9595. and anyone who visits a Google-based application or website from their phone,4444. Similarly, geofence data could be used as evidence of guilt not just by being loosely associated with someone else in a crowd but by simply being there in the first place. 19. A warrant that authorized one limited intrusion rather than a series or a continuous surveillance thus could not be used as a passkey to further search.8787. Critics noted that such a bill could penalize anyone attending peaceful demonstrations that, because of someone elses actions, become violent. In most cases, the information is in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates derived . New figures from Google show a tenfold increase in the requests from law enforcement, which target anyone who happened to be in a given location at a specified time. Ct. Feb. 1, 2017), https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3519211-Edina-Police-Google-Search-Warrant-Redacted.html [https://perma.cc/7SCA-GGPJ] (requesting this information of suspects accounts along with their Google searches). Theres always collateral damage, says Jake Laperruque, senior policy counsel for the Constitution Project at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. Presumably, this choice is because the search requested by the government seems limited on the warrant applications face to the specific geographic coordinates and timestamps provided. All rights reserved. That Made Him a Suspect., NBC News (Mar. I believe that iPhones that have Google apps like Gmail or Youtube running in the foreground have the capability to report location to Google. Id. S8183, 20192020 Leg. 20 M 297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *6 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020) (rejecting the governments argument that Googles framework curtail[s] or define[s] the agents discretion in a[] meaningful way); see also Arson, 2020 WL 6343084, at *10; Pharma II, No. . Orin S. Kerr, Searches and Seizures in a Digital World, 119 Harv. If as is common practice, see, e.g., Affidavit for Search Warrant, supra note 65, at 23 officials had requested additional location data as part of step two for these 1,494 devices thirty minutes before and after the initial search, this subsequent search would be broader than many geofence warrants judges have struck down as too probing, see, e.g., Pharma II, No. In the statement released by the companies, they write that, This bill, if passed into law, would be the first of its kind to address the increasing use of law enforcement requests that, instead of relying on individual suspicion, request data pertaining to individuals who may have been in a specific vicinity or used a certain search term. This is an undoubtedly positive step for companies that have a checkered history of being. Ct. Rev. and the Drug Enforcement Administration was given broad authority to conduct covert surveillance of protesters.108108. 2015) (emphasizing, albeit in a different context, that society often refuses to change and even perpetuates inherently unbalanced social structures and yet blames those disadvantaged for not being able to keep up). merely by asking private companies. Id. Google has reportedly received as many as 180 requests in a single week.2525. In other words, the characterization of a geofence warrant as a search in the first place likely relies in part on the prevalence of cell phones. nor provide the exact location being searched.161161. Fifth Circuit Delivers a New Law Enforcement Functions Test for Identifying Government Actors. It ensures that the search will be carefully tailored to its justifications126126. Rather than issuing a warrant for data on a specific individual, these warrants seek information on all of the devices in a given area at a given time. Texas,1818. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Googles Sensorvault Is a Boon for Law Enforcement. Another covered solely a small L-shaped roadway,168168. . 2019), or should readily be extended to other technologies, see, e.g., Naperville Smart Meter Awareness v. City of Naperville, 900 F.3d 521, 527 (7th Cir. Geofencing itself simply means drawing a virtual border around a predefined geographical area. Mar. . See, e.g., Global Requests for User Information, Google, https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/overview [https://perma.cc/8CQU-943P]. See id. 1995 (2017). . The Arson court first emphasized the small scope of the areas implicated. installed on 2.5 billion active devices, is more widespread than Apple's iOS. I'm sure once when I was watching the keynote on a new iOS they demonstrated that you could open up maps and draw a geofence around an area so that you could set a reminder for when you leave or enter that area without entering an address. See Valentino-DeVries, supra note 25. 20 M 297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *1, *3 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020). On January 14, 2020, these rides made him a suspect in a local burglary.22. The Court has recognized that the reasonableness standard introduces uncertainty, see United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 914 (1984), and many have criticized the standards flexibility and have called for its further definition, see, e.g., United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 117 (1965) (Douglas, J., dissenting); Ronald J. Bacigal, Making the Right Gamble: The Odds on Probable Cause, 74 Miss. See Jon Schuppe, Google Tracked His Bike Ride Past a Burglarized Home. The Gainesville Police Department had gotten something called a geofence warrant granted by the Alachua County court. Camara v. Mun. at 57. Thomas Brewster, Google Hands Feds 1,500 Phone Locations in Unprecedented Geofence Search, Forbes (Dec. 11, 2019, 7:45 AM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/12/11/google-gives-feds-1500-leads-to-arsonist-smartphones-in-unprecedented-geofence-search [https://perma.cc/PML8-W2UR]. While Apple, Facebook and other tech companies have geofencing capabilities, Google is often used for . By submitting "geofence" warrants, police are able to look at which phones . Law enforcement . 1 v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364, 371 (2009) (citations omitted) (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 238, 244 n.13); see also Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 735 (1983) (plurality opinion). The bill would also ban keyword searches, a similarly criticized investigative tactic in which Google hands over data based on what someone searched for. KRWEa7JC^z-kPdhr_ 3J*d 0G -p2K@u&>BXQ?K2`-P^S J:9EU(2U80A#[P`##A-7P=;4|) J(D/UJK`%h(X!v`_}#Y^SL`D( :BPH:0@K?> Z4^'GdA@`D.ezE|k27T G+ev!uE5@GSIL+$O5VBEUD 2t%BZfJzt:cYM:Tid3t$ 2010); United States v. Reed, 195 F. Appx 815, 822 (10th Cir. 205, 22731 (2018); Jennifer D. Oliva, Prescription-Drug Policing: The Right to Health Information Privacy Pre- and Post-Carpenter, 69 Duke L.J. If geofence warrants are constitutional at all, it must be because courts understand geofence searches more narrowly: as the production of data directly responsive to the warrant, step two of Googles framework. Relevant evidence could include the probability of finding location data of coconspirators or potential witnesses. Though Apple, Lyft, Snapchat, and Uber have all received these warrants,4646. Courts have long been reluctant to forgive the requirements of the Fourth Amendment in the name of law enforcement,113113. L. No. Pharma II, No. See Google Amicus Brief, supra note 11, at 14. Which UI design tool should I use in 2020? 2019). For months, Zachary McCoy tracked the distance of his bike rides around his neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida, using his RunKeeper app.11. Courts have already shown great concern over technologies such as physical tracking devices,9797. it is reasonable to believe that the perpetrators phone data can be found in these records. See, e.g., Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 735 (1983) (plurality opinion). In 2019, a single warrant in connection with an arson resulted in nearly 1,500 device identifiers being sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. See, e.g., Affidavit for Search Warrant, supra note 65, at 23. The warrant itself must be particular when presented to a judge for review163163. at *10. these criticisms are insufficient for the purposes of probable cause, which has never required certainty just probability. Search Warrant, supra note 5. This Note begins to fill the gap, focusing specifically on the Fourth Amendments warrant requirements: probable cause and particularity. Google is the most common recipient and the only one known to respond.4747. . But lawyers for Rhine, a Washington man accused of various federal crimes on January 6, recently filed a motion to suppress the geofence evidence. Alfred Ng, Google Is Giving Data to Police Based on Search Keywords, Court Docs Show, CNET (Oct. 8, 2020, 4:21 PM), https://www.cnet.com/news/google-is-giving-data-to-police-based-on-search-keywords-court-docs-show [https://perma.cc/DVJ9-BWB3]. xKGr) ]c .`;#JV~GfF"F6xfedmBF{-ym7i}g/b}hjnWow8Y"av4J?wm_5_/xq Virginia,1919. New Resources Available for Password Manager Apps. As a result, and because Google has recently revealed how it processes these warrants, this Note discusses Google in particular detail, though it functions as a stand-in for any company that collects and stores location data. at 13. A person does notand should notsurrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing into the public sphere.187187. See Arson, 2020 WL 6343084, at *10; Pharma II, 2020 WL 4931052, at *1617; Pharma I, 2020 WL 5491763, at *6. Despite Molina having an alibi confirmed by multiple witnesses and the fact that the same location data impossibly placed him in multiple locations at the same time on numerous occasions, the police arrested him, locked him in jail for six days, and informed dozens of media outlets that he was the suspect in a highly publicized murder case.77. With permission from a judge, they allow law enforcement to obtain anonymized data from Google from almost any device that was in a certain geographic . << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 4987 >> Id. In California, geofence warrant requests leaped from 209 in 2018 to more than 1,900 two years later. They also vary in the evidence that they request. First, because it has no way of knowing which accounts will produce responsive data, Google searches the entirety of Sensorvault, its location history database,6969. At this time, fewer pedestrians would be around, and fewer individuals would be captured by the geofence warrant. Google received 982 geofence warrants in 2018, 8,396 a year later, and 11,554 in 2020, according to the latest data released by the company. warrant, "geofence warrants," which are testing the boundaries of the Fourth Amendment. While Google has responded to requests for additional information at step two without a second court order, see Paul, supra note 75, this compliance does not mean the information produced is a private search unregulated by the Fourth Amendment. But see Orin S. Kerr, The Case for the Third-Party Doctrine, 107 Mich. L. Rev. Conclusion. Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 221920. In 2018, Google received 982 geofence warrants from law enforcement; in 2020 that number surged to 11,554, according to the most recent data provided by the company. BTS, Baepsae, on The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. Execs. Assn, 489 U.S. 602, 614 (1989). First, the narrowness of the anonymized list is largely in the hands of private companies, rather than the judiciary or legislature, which is impracticable in the long run. See Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 742 (1979); United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435, 442 (1976). %PDF-1.3 1. iBox Service. Sess. As Wired explains, in the U.S. these warrants had increased from 941 in 2018 to 11,033 in 2020. See id. The warrants constitutional defect its generality is cured by its spatial and temporal restrictions, even though the warrant still names no individualized suspect. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. f]}~\zIfys/\ 3p"wk)_$r#y'a-U No. Smartphone Market Share, IDC (Dec. 15, 2020), https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os [https://perma.cc/SF4Z-Z4LS]. No available New Jersey decision analyzes geofence warrants. Some, for example, will expand the search area by asking for devices located outside the search parameters but within a margin of error.6464. CSLI,9999. The existence of probable cause, for example, must be tied not only to whether the database contains evidence of the crime but also to whether probable cause extends to the areas for which location data is requested. A warrant that used Google location history to find people near the scene of a 2019 bank robbery violated their constitutional protection against unreasonable searches, a federal judge has ruled. 388 U.S. 41 (1967). The court also highlighted the length of time (fifteen to thirty minutes170170. Sixty-seven percent of smartphone users who use navigation apps prefer Google Maps. The Richmond police used personal data from Google Maps to crack a six-month-old bank robbery, triggering protests from the suspect's counsel that the use of what is known as a "geofence warrant . It turns out that these warrants are so invasive of user privacy that big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are willing to support banning them. As . As it pertains to law enforcement, geofencing begins with officers defining an area of interest and a time period. The Chatrie opinion suggests it would approve a geofence warrant process in which a magistrate or court got to make a probable cause determination before geofence data of the likely suspect is de . 14, 2018). Much has been said about how courts will extend Carpenter if at all.3939. 591, 619 (2016) (explaining that probable cause requires the government to show a likely benefit that justifies [the searchs] cost). Similarly, geofence warrants in Florida leaped from 81 requests in 2018 to more than 800 last year. Geofence Warrants On The Rise. Between 2017 and 2018, Google saw a 1,500% increase in geofence requests. Usually, officers identify a suspect or person of interest, then obtain a warrant from a judge to search the persons home or belongings. Eighty-one percent have smartphones. Geofence warrants allow law enforcement officers to search when they don't have a potential suspect. EFF proudly joins ACLU California Action and If/When/How to co-sponsor new California legislation to protect people seeking abortion and gender-affirming care from dragnet-style digital surveillance. First, officers had established the existence of coconspirators using traditional surveillance tools.155155. See Google Amicus Brief, supra note 11, at 14. it relies in large part on police expertise and intuition134134. The company then gathers information about all the devices that Modern technology, in removing most practical barriers to surveillance, has ensured that this statement no longer holds. (1763) 98 Eng. and should, by default, be available to ensure the transparency of the courts decisionmaking process.6363. 20 M 525, 2020 WL 6343084, at *6 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 29, 2020). Warrants can be issued by magistrate judges or state court judges. See Webster, supra note 5 (describing multiple warrants issued within ten minutes of the request). Alfred Ng, Geofence Warrants: How Police Can Use Protesters Phones Against Them, CNET (June 16, 2020, 9:52 AM), https://www.cnet.com/news/geofence-warrants-how-police-can-use-protesters-phones-against-them [https://perma.cc/3XEJ-L3KT]. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 238. Geofence warrant requests in Virginia grew from 72 in 2018 to 484 in 2020, . But in a dense city, even a relatively narrow geofence warrant would inevitably capture innocent citizens visiting not only busy public streets and commercial establishments, but also gyms, medical offices, and religious sites, revealing, by easy inference, political and religious associations, sexual orientation, and more.123123. Google Amicus Brief, supra note 11, at 13. . . The report shows that requests have spiked dramatically in the past three years, rising as much as tenfold in some states. In listing the things to be seized, a warrant must list all the data that law enforcement intends to collect throughout the entirety of Googles process, which includes, at least, the latitude/longitude coordinates and timestamp of the reported location information of each device identified by Google in step one.173173. In a legal brief, Google said geofence requests jumped 1,500% from 2017 to 2018, and another 500% from 2018 to 2019. Meanwhile, places like California and Florida have seen tenfold increases in geofence warrant requests in a short time. The online conversations that bring us closer together can help build a world thats more free, fair, and creative. (June 12, 2019), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile [https://perma.cc/7WWT-NLPP]. ; Fed. These reverse warrants have serious implications for civil liberties. In Berger v. New York,8484. This rummaging and the general [a]wareness that the government may be watching chills associational and expressive freedoms.106106. In Pharma I, the requested geofence spanned a 100-meter radius area within a densely populated city during several times in the early afternoon, capturing a large number of individuals visiting all sorts of amenities associated with upscale urban living.152152. Instead, with geofence warrants, they draw a box on a map, and compel the company to identify every digital device within that drawn boundary during a given time period. But geofence warrants do exactly that authorizing broad searches of entire location history databases, simply on the off chance that somebody connected with a crime might be found. 25102522, which would require law enforcement to establish necessity. The memorandum was obtained by journalists at BuzzFeed News. Geofence location and keyword warrants are new law enforcement tools that have privacy experts concerned. This list is and will always be a work in progress and new warrants will be added periodically. But months later, in January of this year, McCoy got an email from Google saying that his data was going to be released to local police. See, e.g., Affidavit for Search Warrant at 23, United States v. Chatrie, No. This Note focuses on the subsequent inquiry: If the Fourth Amendment is triggered, how should judges consider probable cause and particularity when reviewing warrant applications? . Additionally, geofence warrants are usually sealed by judges.5858. 18-5276)). Since then, it has generally been understood that no warrant can authorize the search of everything or everyone in sight.9696. Others ask for lists of all implicated users, their phone numbers, IP addresses, and more.6666. The geofence is . for Just., Cellphones, Law Enforcement, and the Right to Privacy 5 (2018), https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Report_Cell_Surveillance_Privacy.pdf [https://perma.cc/Z6F7-XZYV]. Id. 2011) (Flaum, J., concurring), vacated, 565 U.S. 1189 (2012))). Of the courts that have considered these warrants, most have implicitly treated the search as the point when the private company first provides law enforcement with the data requested step two in Googles framework with no explanation why.7777. many do not.7474. Geofence warrants seek location data on every person within a specific location over a certain period of time. Apple told the Times that it doesn't have the ability to furnish law enforcement with data in the same way as Google. See Google Amicus Brief, supra note 11, at 10; see also Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2218 (recognizing that high technological precision increases the likelihood that a search exists); United States v. Beverly, 943 F.3d 225, 230 n.2 (5th Cir. Apple, whose software runs mobile devices such as its iPhone, cannot respond to geofence warrants, a company spokesperson said. PLGB9hJKZ]Xij{5 'mGIP(/h(&!Vy|[YUd9_FcLAPQG{9op QhW) 6@Ap&QF]7>B3?T5EeYmEc9(mHt[eg\ruwqIidJ?"KADwf7}BG&1f87B(6Or/5_RPcQY o/YSR0210H!mE>N@KM=Pl Now Its Paused, The Biggest US Surveillance Program You Didnt Know About. In order for step twos back-and-forth to be lawful, therefore, the geofence warrant must have authorized these further searches. Valentino-DeVries, supra note 42. to produce an anonymized list of the accounts along with relevant coordinate, timestamp, and source information present during the specified timeframe in one or more areas delineated by law enforcement.7070. 2703(a), (b)(A), (c)(A). IV (emphasis added); see also Fed. Other tech companies that collect location data, including Apple, Microsoft, and Uber, receive similar requests each year. See generally Orin Kerr, Implementing Carpenter, in The Digital Fourth Amendment (forthcoming), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3301257 [https://perma.cc/BDR5-6P6T]. Under the Fourth Amendment, if police can demonstrate probable cause that searching a particular person or place will reveal evidence of a crime, they can obtain a warrant from a court authorizing a limited search for this evidence. This Part describes the limited role judges and the public currently play in approving and scrutinizing geofence warrants and how Google responds to them. Id. We developed a process specifically for these requests that is designed to honor our legal obligations while narrowing the scope of data disclosed.". A geofence warrant is a type of search warrant that law enforcement typically use when they do not have a suspect. It is clear that technology will only continue to evolve. 20 M 297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *6 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020). . The back-and-forth that law enforcement and private companies often engage in, whereby officials ask companies for additional location information beyond the scope of the approved warrant, raises distinct concerns. Selain di Jogja City Mall lantai UG Unit 38, iBox juga kini sudah hadir di Hartono Mall. Often, warrants remain sealed and criminal defendants never find out that these warrants played a role in their convictions. and geographic area delineated by the geofence warrant. . 371 U.S. 471 (1963). Indeed, users proactively enable location tracking,3636. As a result, to better protect users data and to ensure uniformity of process, Google purports to always push back on overly broad requests6767. In practice, inquiry into probable cause for time will likely overlap with the preliminary question of whether geofence warrants are searches. Google now gets geofence warrants from agencies in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the . Zachary McCoy went for a bike ride on a Friday in March 2019. After spending several thousand dollars retaining a lawyer, McCoy successfully blocked the release.44. granting law enforcement access to thousands of innocent individuals data without a known public safety benefit.2323. See, e.g., Pharma I, No. The Places Searched. The warrant specifies a physical location and a time period. The Mystery Vehicle at the Heart of Teslas New Master Plan, All the Settings You Should Change on Your New Samsung Phone, This Hacker Tool Can Pinpoint a DJI Drone Operator's Location, Amazons HQ2 Aimed to Show Tech Can Boost Cities. at *5. 138 S. Ct. 2206. the information retrieved in response to a geofence warrant is pervasive, detailed, revealing, retroactive, and cheap.3333. If Google complies, it will supply a list of anonymized data about the devices in the area: GPS coordinates, the time stamps of when they were in the area, and an anonymized identifier, known as a reverse location obfuscation identifier, or RLOI. Both iPhone and Android have a one-click button to tap that disables everything. Simply because the government can obtain location data from private companies does not mean that it should legally be able to.