US Supreme Court appears split over controversial use of ‘geofence’ search warrants

Supreme Court justices signal deep divisions over police use of geofence warrants to mine tech company data for criminal suspects. | Contesto: cronaca

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• US Supreme Court appears split over controversial use of ‘geofence’ search warrants

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The U.S. Supreme Court appeared sharply divided on Tuesday during oral arguments over the constitutionality of so-called “geofence” warrants, a controversial investigative tool that allows police to force technology companies to hand over location data on every device within a specific area, potentially implicating hundreds of innocent people in a criminal probe. The case, which stems from a 2018 bank robbery in Ohio, asks whether the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures permits law enforcement to issue a sweeping warrant that effectively turns Google and other tech giants into digital dragnets. The justices’ questions suggested a deep philosophical rift over how to apply centuries-old privacy principles to modern surveillance capabilities. At the heart of the dispute is a warrant that compelled Google to identify every account whose location data placed it near the scene of a crime during a specific time window. Police then used that list to narrow down suspects, eventually charging a man with the robbery. Civil liberties groups argue the practice amounts to a virtual general warrant, the very type of intrusion the Fourth Amendment was designed to prevent. Several conservative justices expressed skepticism about the breadth of the warrants, noting that they sweep up data from people with no connection to any crime. Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned whether the government could justify accessing the location records of “thousands of people” based on a single criminal act. Justice Brett Kavanaugh pressed prosecutors on whether less intrusive alternatives, such as traditional targeted warrants, could achieve the same ends. On the other side, liberal justices raised concerns about hamstringing law enforcement in an era of increasingly sophisticated digital crime. Justice Elena Kagan pointed out that the warrant was not a general search but one limited in time and place, and that it served a critical investigative purpose. The Biden administration, defending the warrant, argued that courts have long allowed searches that incidentally capture innocent data, such as wiretaps that intercept non-target conversations. The case has drawn...

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Categoria: cronaca