{"id":500,"date":"2026-06-30T16:10:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:10:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:10:50","slug":"supreme-court-rules-your-cellphone-location-data-is-protected-by-the-fourth-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Law enforcement officials frequently draw virtual fences around areas of interest and require Google to identify every cellphone in the area using cell location history. Dubbed a \u201cgeofence search,\u201d officers obtain a warrant that permits a multistep, give-and-take information sharing process between officers and tech employees that winnows down and identifies subjects. <\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter turbocharges presidential\u00a0power<\/a><\/p>\n

On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that whenever police obtain an individual\u2019s cell location data, even from a third-party tech company, it of the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable government searches and seizures, and it does so in part by requiring search warrants based on probable cause that describe the particular person or thing to be searched. A geofence warrant that identifies every phone in an area does not align well with those requirements.<\/p>\n

In its 6-3 decision in Chatrie v. United States, the court sent the case back to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether the geofence warrant at issue, including each part of its three-step search process, met the Fourth Amendment\u2019s warrant requirements.<\/p>\n

As a privacy, electronic surveillance and tech law attorney, author and legal educator, I have spent years researching, writing, educating and advising about these kinds of privacy and legal issues, and my books on electronic surveillance and evidence are routinely cited and relied upon by courts grappling with these issues.<\/p>\n

Google tracks the vast majority of cellphones, collecting your location, usage and device data through installed software and apps. The tracking occurs by various autonomous processes you cannot see or stop, even when you turn off location history, and Google and other companies keep that data for years. Outside of your control, your cellphone continuously creates a durable and revealing digital trail that law enforcement can obtain with a warrant.<\/p>\n

The Chatrie case involves the hunt for a suspect in an armed bank robbery in busy Midlothian, Virginia, in May 2019, and how police settled on a man named Okello Chatrie as the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

Detective Joshua Hylton was granted a geofence warrant that compelled Google to search its database and identify every cellphone in a around the bank, including private residences and a church, for a period of two hours. Working closely with Google, police ultimately narrowed in on Chatrie. When the trial court denied Chatrie\u2019s motion to suppress the geofence-derived evidence, Chatrie appealed.<\/p>\n

The government argued both that Chatrie had tacitly agreed to Google collecting the information and that Chatrie had no reasonable expectation of privacy in third-party Google\u2019s records. The Supreme Court disagreed on both fronts. This decision matters because all cellphone-carrying people can end up in tomorrow\u2019s geofence, like all those who were unknowingly grabbed in the Chatrie search. And nearly all users are unaware of these fences. No one specifically consents to be included in them, but people have no choice. What happened in the Chatrie case is a feat otherwise impossible but for advances in location-tracking technology and advanced AI systems.<\/p>\n

How geofences work<\/h2>\n

Geofences are part of modern life. By carrying your smartphone and other devices, you generate location and other device activity data. That data is collected, stored, analyzed, and bought and sold by multiple companies. The location history data being collected about you is what makes geofences possible, and it is comprehensive and precise. <\/p>\n

Location history relies on a variety of sources of data that can include cell tower location, cellphone connections to Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth sources, and cellular data sent via cell tower. This means the communications you received and sent and the apps you used can be swept up in a geofence.<\/p>\n

Advanced AI technologies analyze that data to discern increasing amounts of personal and behavioral data \u2013 insights about people, groups and activities \u2013 that can be used for a variety of purposes, including targeted advertising. Your rich location history and device data get snatched up regularly in such fences by private companies; your present and past self travels through them constantly.<\/p>\n

A geofence can be in real time, for instance to identify and track who is or was at a protest or, say, a reflecting pool during any period in the past decade or so. It can be dynamically generated, like a circle around a specific location, or it could be a predefined set of boundaries, such as a specific address or area defined by streets or other geographical boundaries. One geofence warrant that Google received covered 2\u00bd square miles of San Francisco for a period of 2\u00bd days.<\/p>\n

There has been a significant increase in law enforcement\u2019s use of geofence warrants over the past decade. Google revealed in court that it received a 1,500% increase in geofence requests from 2017 to 2018, a 500% increase from 2018 to 2019, and that by 2020 it had 11,500 geofence warrants in a year. Between 2021 and 2023, that Google received from law enforcement agencies in the United States.<\/p>\n

Read more For Haitian women in Florida, the loss of TPS is more than an immigration law\u00a0issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Search warrants and the Fourth Amendment<\/h2>\n

The Fourth Amendment is the foundation on which all U.S. electronic privacy laws rest. When government agents want to search or seize a person, place or thing \u2013 absent consent or emergency \u2013 the Fourth Amendment requires agents to get a court-approved warrant based on probable cause. Agents must provide a judge with enough evidence to establish probable cause that the person, place or thing to be searched or seized is associated with a crime. <\/p>\n

The resulting warrant must also describe with \u201cparticularity\u201d the specific person, place or thing to be searched or seized. If these requirements are not met, the search is unreasonable and therefore unlawful, and evidence obtained in that search cannot be used in court, barring a good-faith exception.<\/p>\n

The Fourth Amendment\u2019s \u201cparticularity\u201d requirement strictly forbids general warrants, historically used by British troops against colonists to engage in overly broad or all-encompassing searches.<\/p>\n

Reverse warrants<\/h2>\n

The only \u201cparticularity\u201d that police can specify in applying for a geofence warrant is that a crime occurred at a particular time and place. Hence, geofence warrants are often called reverse warrants because they literally reverse the traditional process of conducting an investigation. Instead of identifying a suspect and then obtaining a warrant to gather information on that person, geofence warrants gather all devices in a time and place. Then, aided by technology and evolving search parameters, police sift through for potential suspects.<\/p>\n

Litigation records reveal a collaborative effort between law enforcement and Google that follows a three-step process. First, agents specify in the geofence warrant a time and place to be searched. The data they\u2019re seeking is not merely a list of cellphone devices in the area; it is usually more detailed, such as whether a device sent texts when it was in the area of the geofence.<\/p>\n

Next, the company provides the officials with an anonymized list of users or devices matching the warrant\u2019s criteria. At this point, things start to become more fluid, and the officials may seek additional information about specific users outside the originally authorized search parameters.<\/p>\n

Third, officials then analyze the information and request that the company \u201cunmask\u201d certain users. In complying, Google may tell police the account holder\u2019s name, their address, their email address, and even whether they were communicating or using certain apps during the relevant time. <\/p>\n

This close work between the private entity \u2013 usually Google \u2013 and law enforcement throughout the geofence warrant process raises significant privacy and civil liberties concerns. It also does not appear that there is any court review or judicial oversight during this give-and-take between law enforcement officers and Google in the geofence warrant process.<\/p>\n

Chatrie and the Supreme Court<\/h2>\n

For decades, the court has grappled with law enforcement\u2019s use of technologies to track the location of people or things. In its 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States, it ruled that the U.S. Constitution requires law enforcement agents to obtain a warrant to track a person using their , as it had done previously with GPS data. And in Carpenter, it specifically ruled that cellphone users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell site location history, even though that data is obviously shared with their cell providers.<\/p>\n

It was perhaps not surprising that the court firmly rejected the government\u2019s arguments in Chatrie. The justices had already rejected these arguments in 2018 with very similar technologies at issue.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s ruling is unequivocal: \u201c.\u201d The ruling clarifies and strengthens privacy protections in the digital age. What remains to be seen is how the 4th Circuit will answer the question the Supreme Court posed when it sent the case back to them: Did the geofence warrant \u2013 and each part of the multistep search \u2013 comply with the Fourth Amendment\u2019s requirements?<\/p>\n

Read more Texas approves mandatory Bible readings in public schools, reigniting a century\u2011long\u00a0debate<\/a><\/p>\n

This is an updated version of an article originally published on April 29, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geofencing warrants, which round up the location data of everyone in a specific place at a specific time, are now legally subject to Fourth Amendment protections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[1579,1576,1577,1580,1578,845,318],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-google","tag-location-data","tag-location-tracking","tag-search-warrants","tag-technology","tag-us-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment - Pro Relocation Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment - Pro Relocation Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Geofencing warrants, which round up the location data of everyone in a specific place at a specific time, are now legally subject to Fourth Amendment protections.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pro Relocation Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-30T16:10:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/97a31525c78054101e02d9350324fbf9\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T16:10:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500\"},\"wordCount\":1508,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif\",\"keywords\":[\"Fourth Amendment\",\"Google\",\"Location data\",\"Location tracking\",\"Search warrants\",\"Technology\",\"US Supreme Court\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment - Pro Relocation Team\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T16:10:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/97a31525c78054101e02d9350324fbf9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif\",\"width\":1356,\"height\":668},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?p=500#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pro Relocation Team\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/97a31525c78054101e02d9350324fbf9\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prorelocationteam.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment - Pro Relocation Team","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment - Pro Relocation Team","og_description":"Geofencing warrants, which round up the location data of everyone in a specific place at a specific time, are now legally subject to Fourth Amendment protections.","og_url":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500","og_site_name":"Pro Relocation Team","article_published_time":"2026-06-30T16:10:50+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/97a31525c78054101e02d9350324fbf9"},"headline":"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment","datePublished":"2026-06-30T16:10:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500"},"wordCount":1508,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif","keywords":["Fourth Amendment","Google","Location data","Location tracking","Search warrants","Technology","US Supreme Court"],"articleSection":["Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500","url":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500","name":"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment - Pro Relocation Team","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif","datePublished":"2026-06-30T16:10:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/97a31525c78054101e02d9350324fbf9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f71c419aa96ea0dbef4957b2c90eff8e.avif","width":1356,"height":668},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=500#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth\u00a0Amendment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/","name":"Pro Relocation Team","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/97a31525c78054101e02d9350324fbf9","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/prorelocationteam.com"],"url":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}