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Supreme Court Restricts Geofence Warrants

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Today, 11:35 AM by Rich Brome @rbrome.bsky.social

The US Supreme Court has ruled that "an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell-phone location information." This finding places a higher legal burden on law enforcement agencies seeking "geofence warrants" that ask tech companies for the identities of all people with an active cell phone in a given area, at a certain time. Those agencies must now obtain a full search warrant and show probable cause. The case that prompted the ruling involved a bank robbery in Virginia. The case was cold until police asked Google for cell phone location data that led to a suspect.

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