Digital rights groups urge US Supreme Court to ban geofence warrants
Civil liberties organisations have asked the US Supreme Court to rule that geofence warrants violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), together with the A
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), together with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organisations, has filed a legal brief urging the US Supreme Court to declare geofence warrants unconstitutional.
Geofence warrants allow law enforcement to request location data from technology companies for all devices within a defined geographic area during a specific time period. Instead of targeting a known suspect, the requests gather information about many individuals who may have simply been present near a crime scene.
The brief was submitted in the case Chatrie vs United States, which challenges a 2019 warrant that required Google to search location data from users whose devices were near a robbery in Northern Virginia. The search area covered multiple buildings and public spaces, potentially affecting large numbers of people who were not suspected of any wrongdoing.
The organisations argue that such searches resemble general warrants, which are prohibited under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution because they allow broad and indiscriminate data collection. According to the brief, geofence requests can expose the location histories of many individuals and risk turning ordinary bystanders into subjects of investigation.
The Supreme Court is expected to consider whether this type of digital search is compatible with constitutional protections for privacy and due process.
