According to the U.S. Supreme Court, police use of location data from cell phones to solve crimes constitutes a” search” and therefore requires a warrant under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which has implications for Americans ‘ expectations of privacy in relation to technology.
Following an armed robbery at a bank in Midlothian, Virginia, police issued a “geofence” permit to Google that required it to comb through the site information of 500 million customers. A policeman requested that Google identifie the people of three mobile phones from that data without a fresh warrant after isolating 19 cell phone users who were 300 meters from the bank at the time of the assault. The investigation led the policeman to apprehend Okello Chatrie for the robbery.
