The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that geofence warrants constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment. Police can no longer vacuum up location data from tech companies without probable cause. Justice Elena Kagan compared constant tracking to wearing an ankle monitor - unreasonable by constitutional standards.
The decision, covered on Behind the Bastards, marks a reversal of the third-party doctrine, which held that users waive privacy by sharing data with companies. With phones now essential, the Court acknowledged that location trails aren’t voluntarily surrendered.
But the legal win is being hollowed out. The next day, Rabbit Hole Recap detailed how law enforcement bypasses the ruling. Agencies buy real-time location data from brokers like Weblock, which harvest device IDs and GPS pings through advertising APIs.
Cooper Quentin of the EFF notes these transactions are treated as commercial purchases, not searches. That means no warrant is required. Federal efforts like the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act have stalled, leaving the loophole wide open.
"The government can now buy the surveillance it's forbidden from demanding."
- Cooper Quentin, Behind the Bastards
This shadow market thrives because data never stops flowing. Even as Google moves location storage on-device to resist warrants, ad tech continues broadcasting user coordinates. Brokers aggregate and resell it - clean, timestamped, and ready for police use.
The system isn’t broken. It’s working as designed. Without federal regulation, the line between public and private surveillance is just a price tag.
"Users aren't 'voluntarily' sharing their trails. They're just trying to use an app."
- Cooper Quentin, Behind the Bastards
