Supreme Court to Hear Case on Geofence Data Privacy

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in *Chatrie v. United States* on Monday, a case concerning law enforcement access to geofence data. Geofence data includes location information collected by cellphone applications.

The case raises questions about Fourth Amendment protections in the digital age, specifically whether police must obtain a warrant to access this type of data.

In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled in *Carpenter v. United States* that police need a warrant to access seven or more days of cell-site location information (CSLI). CSLI is generated when cell phones connect to cell towers. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that accessing that amount of location data without a warrant violates a person’s “reasonable expectation of privacy.”

The *Chatrie* case differs from *Carpenter* because it involves data generated by cellphone apps. This data combines information from cell towers with GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth signals. Law enforcement sought this data from Google to identify potential suspects in a bank robbery, requesting an anonymized list of devices present near the bank during the time of the crime.

Police initially obtained a warrant for an anonymized list of phones in a 17.5-acre area around the bank. They subsequently requested location information for a subset of those phones in a two-hour window and then asked Google to identify three devices whose movements matched details of the investigation. One of those devices was linked to Okello Chatrie.

Chatrie argues that accessing geofence data violates the Fourth Amendment. He maintains that he did not voluntarily share his location data with Google, despite agreeing to the app's terms of service. He describes this as "consent by adhesion" because of the power imbalance between him and the company.

Chatrie also argues that the warrant issued to Google amounted to an unconstitutional general warrant because it lacked a specific target and compelled Google to search through all user records.

Google announced in 2023 that it would no longer store Location History data on its servers. The company’s policy change means Google no longer possesses the data needed to respond to police geofence requests. Regardless, the Supreme Court's decision in *Chatrie v. United States* could shape the future of digital privacy and influence how the Fourth Amendment applies to new technologies.