Geofence warrant
{{Short description|Type of search warrant}}
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. Courts have granted law enforcement geo-fence warrants to obtain information from databases such as Google's Sensorvault, which collects users' historical geolocation data.{{Cite news|last=Valentino-DeVries|first=Jennifer|date=April 13, 2019|title=Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/13/us/google-location-tracking-police.html|access-date=October 17, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=Brewster|first=Thomas|date=December 11, 2019|title=Google Hands Feds 1,500 Phone Locations In Unprecedented 'Geofence' Search|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/12/11/google-gives-feds-1500-leads-to-arsonist-smartphones-in-unprecedented-geofence-search/|access-date=October 17, 2021|website=Forbes|language=en}} Geo-fence warrants are a part of a category of warrants known as reverse search warrants.
History
Geofence warrants were first used in 2016.{{Cite journal|date=May 10, 2021|title=Geofence Warrants and the Fourth Amendment|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/05/geofence-warrants-and-the-fourth-amendment/|journal=Harvard Law Review|volume=134|issue=7}} Google reported that it had received 982 such warrants in 2018, 8,396 in 2019, and 11,554 in 2020.{{cite news|last1=Bhuiyan|first1=Johana|date=September 16, 2021|title=The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history|language=en|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/16/geofence-warrants-reverse-search-warrants-police-google|access-date=October 17, 2021}} A 2021 transparency report showed that 25% of data requests from law enforcement to Google were geo-fence data requests.{{Cite magazine|last=Fussell|first=Sidney|date=August 27, 2021|title=An Explosion in Geofence Warrants Threatens Privacy Across the US|language=en-US|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/geofence-warrants-google/|access-date=October 17, 2021|issn=1059-1028}} Google is the most common recipient of geo-fence warrants and the main provider of such data,{{Cite journal|last=Rathi|first=Mohit|date=2021|title=Rethinking Reverse Location Search Warrants|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48617799|journal=The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology|volume=111|issue=3|pages=805–837|jstor=48617799|issn=0091-4169}} although companies including Apple, Snapchat, Lyft, and Uber have also received such warrants.
Legality
= United States =
Some lawyers and privacy experts believe reverse search warrants are unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires any search warrants be specific to what and to whom they apply.{{Cite journal|date=May 10, 2021|title=Geofence Warrants and the Fourth Amendment|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/05/geofence-warrants-and-the-fourth-amendment/|journal=Harvard Law Review|volume=134|issue=7}} The Fourth Amendment specifies that warrants may only be issued "upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Some lawyers, legal scholars, and privacy experts have likened reverse search warrants to general warrants, which were made illegal by the Fourth Amendment.
Groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation have opposed geo-fence warrants in amicus briefs filed in motions to quash such orders to disclose geo-fence data.{{Cite web|last1=Lynch|first1=Jennifer|last2=Sobel|first2=Nathaniel|date=August 31, 2021|title=New Federal Court Rulings Find Geofence Warrants Unconstitutional|url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/08/new-federal-court-rulings-find-geofence-warrants-unconstitutional-0|access-date=October 18, 2021|website=Electronic Frontier Foundation|language=en}}
In 2024 the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that geofence warrants are "categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment."{{Cite web |last=Crocker |first=Andrew |date=2024-08-12 |title=Federal Appeals Court Finds Geofence Warrants Are "Categorically" Unconstitutional |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/federal-appeals-court-finds-geofence-warrants-are-categorically-unconstitutional |access-date=2024-08-13 |website=Electronic Frontier Foundation |language=en}}
See also
References
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Category:Law enforcement terminology
Category:Searches and seizures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geo-fence warrant}}