In a major decision on Friday, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.” Closely following arguments EFF has made in a number of cases, the court found that geofence warrants constitute the sort of “general,...

"First, it determined that under the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Carpenter v. United States, individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the location data implicated by geofence warrants… Second, the court found that even though investigators seek warrants for geofence location data, these searches are inherently unconstitutional… "

    • kalkulat@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      11·
      4 months ago

      A geofence is an imaginary boundary around a location. If police get a ‘geofence warrant’, they can request a list of all phone#'s (and so their owners) that were in that area for a particular period of time. The court ruled this is too invasive for innocent people in that area.