- The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that geofence warrants, which collect smartphone location data, require Fourth Amendment privacy protections, as individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such records.
- Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, stating that accessing location data from third-party tech companies constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, even if data is collected only for a limited time or from public areas.
- The case, Chatrie v US, involved a bank robber tracked via Google's location history, with lawyers arguing the warrant was overly broad and violated constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
- The court rejected government arguments that short-term location data access does not qualify as a Fourth Amendment search, noting that voluntary use of smartphone services does not equate to consent for government surveillance.