The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that law enforcement's use of warrants to collect large amounts of smartphone location data requires privacy protections under the Fourth Amendment. This decision applies individual constitutional protections to new technology, establishing that the sweeping use of cellphone location data requires a warrant.
The ruling follows a case involving a Virginia man's challenge to a geofence warrant. Prosecutors had relied on cellphone location data obtained from Google LLC near a crime scene, which led to the man's conviction for armed robbery. The Supreme Court threw out the previous judicial decision regarding this case.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, which provides a boost to critics who view the use of sprawling warrants as an unconstitutional dragnet. Privacy advocates, who had previously called for an outright ban on geofence warrants, view the decision as a victory.