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Law enforcement have long tapped users’ location data hoarded by tech giants
Google will presently allow users to salt away their locating datum on their gadget rather than on Google ’s server , effectively terminate a long - running surveillance pattern that allowed police and law enforcement to intercept Google ’s vast bank of position data point to identify potential criminals .
The consumption of“geofence warrants”have explode in recent years , in with child part thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones coupled with hungry data companies like Google vacuum-clean up and storing huge amounts of its users ’ fix data , which becomes procurable by practice of law enforcement requests .
law can use geofence warrants ( also known as rearward - location warrant ) to call for that Google turn over information on which users ’ devices were in a particular geographical area at a sure point in metre .
But critics say geofence warrants are unconstitutional and inherently too broad , since these demands often also include the selective information of entirely innocent people who werenearby at a metre when a law-breaking was committed . Eventhe court can not agree on whether geofence warrants are legal , likely set up an eventual challenge at the U.S. Supreme Court .
Google ’s announcement this weekdid not mention geofence warrantsspecifically , saying only that the move to put in location datum on their twist would give users “ more ascendency ” over their data point . In reality , the move forces police force to search a search warrant to access that specific gadget alternatively , rather than asking Google for the data .
While Google is not the only company subject to geofence warrantee , it has by far been the crowing collector of sensitive location datum , and the first to be tap for it .
The practice of constabulary knock Google for users ’ location datum wasfirst revealedin 2019 . Google has long relied on its users ’ location data to get its advertising business , which during 2022 alone brought in about 80 % of Google ’s annual gross , some $ 220 billion .
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But in realness , this surveillance technique is retrieve to be far wider . Law enforcement later expanded its demands for location information to other company . Microsoft and Yahoo ( which possess TechCrunch ) are know to receive geofence warrants , though neither companionship has yet unwrap how many demands for user ’ location data they invite .
In recent year , the number of legal cases involve geofence demand have skyrocket .
Police in Minneapolisused a geofence warrantto key out mortal who attended protestation follow the constabulary killing of George Floyd . The overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 prompted fears that practice of law enforcement in states where access to miscarriage care is limited or seeking an abortion is illegalcould practice geofence warrants to identify those who essay maintenance . lawgiver subsequentlyurged Google to stop collecting location dataover fears the info could be used to identify people seeking miscarriage .
Although the companies have said little about how many geofence warrant they receive , Google , Microsoft and Yahoo last year back a New York country bill thatwould have ostracise the use of geofence imprimatur across the state . The flyer flush it to progress into jurisprudence .
Google has not said how many geofence warrants it has received in late years . The troupe release its most recent ( and only ) disclosure onthe number of geofence warrant it receivedin 2021 observe pressure to disclose the figures after mounting criticisms of the surveillance practice .
The information show up Google received 982 geofence warrants in 2018 , then 8,396 geofence warrant in 2019 , and 11,554 geofence warrants in 2020 — or about one - quarter of all the legal demands that Google received . The revealing , while set , bid the first glance into the abrupt rise in the identification number of these request , but Google did not say how often the search giant pushes back against these legal demand for users ’ position datum — if at all .
intelligence that Google will before long move its users ’ positioning data to their machine was met with conservative kudos .
The Electronic Frontier Foundation , which has dispute the constitutionality of geofence imprimatur in court , saidin a blog postthat “ for now , at least , we ’ll take this as a profits . ” But the EFF noted that there are other path that Google can still turn over raw personal data on its users . Law enforcement uses similar legal demand , dub “ reverse keyword ” warrants , to distinguish Google account that seek for a exceptional keyword in sentence , such as prior to a crime being committed . Google has not said if it plans to exit the loophole that allows constabulary and police enforcement to serve reverse keyword warrants for users ’ search queries .
It ’s not to say that geofence warrants will fizzle out overnight . Google still retains huge savings bank of historical location data point that constabulary can tap into any time , up until whenever Google decide it no longer wants to keep it . technical school company store vast trove of users ’ location data , so they too can be subject to similar legal demand .
But there is Bob Hope that Google shutting the door on geofence countenance — at least going forward — could importantly clip this surveillance loophole .
Inits most late transparentness reportin 2022 , Apple suppose it received 13 geofence warrants demanding its client ’ localisation data , but ply no information in income tax return . Apple said it “ does not have any data point to provide in reaction to geofence requests ” as the information shack on users ’ devices , which Apple says it can not access .
Minneapolis law tapped Google to distinguish George Floyd protesters
