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Supreme Court Puts Limits on Cellphone Location Data Searches
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- The Supreme Court ruled that police must comply with the Fourth Amendment when conducting geofence searches that collect cellphone location data near crime scenes, affirming privacy protections in the digital age.
- Geofence searches, which gather data from multiple devices in a specific area, have raised concerns about privacy violations and the potential for unreasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment.
- Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the 6-3 majority, emphasized that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cellphone location records, and police intrusion requires constitutional safeguards.
- The Court did not rule on the specific case's legality but sent it back to a lower court to determine if the warrant met Fourth Amendment standards of particularity and probable cause.
