The US Supreme Court recently announced a large set of rulings prior to their summer break. You might have heard of some more publicized rulings on birthright citizenship or Title IX. Did you notice the ruling on geofence warrants? Do you know what geofence warrants are? Do you know what a geofence is? Let’s discuss.

What is a geofence?

A geofence is a virtually defined region in the real world. You have likely set up a geofence yourself. Have you used a real estate or apartment searching app? Maybe you have drawn a region on a map to indicate where you were interested in looking for housing? If so, then you’ve made a geofence!

So, what is a geofence warrant?

Law enforcement uses geofence warrants to gather digital information like cell phone location data from a place and time of interest. The warrants mean that service providers must supply this data to the police. But this data is not for just a single phone or a known set of devices. The data usually covers all active phones in a given region at a given time.

Why did the Supreme Court rule on them?

A recent criminal case brought geofence warrants before the Supreme Court. An accused bank robber has challenged the validity of a geofence warrant used to identify him and other evidence. The defendant’s argument is that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy according to the Fourth Amendment and the warrant was an unreasonable search. Law enforcement does not view the warrant as a search since the data is freely given to the tech company. In the 6-3 decision, justices deemed the warrant a search, but left it up to a lower court to determine if it was reasonable. If the court considers geofence warrants to be searches, then they are subject to a much higher constitutional standard before being granted.

My Take

Even if you don’t think you’ll ever be suspected of a crime, these type of rulings do affect you. Each geofence warrant sent to tech companies leads to potentially searching millions of records. That many records may not be forwarded to the police, but certainly many innocent people were included in the batches of data sent as many people were in the same area as the suspect. While we want crimes solved, we don’t want innocent parties being subject to unnecessary searches. If wires get crossed and mistakes are made, consider what can happen. What are the consequences of being in a place at a time?

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