Victory! Supreme Court Says Constitution Protects People’s Location Data

In a victory for privacy rights, the Supreme Court ruled today that your location data is constitutionally protected. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed in support of the case, the Court held in Chatrie v. United States that even short-term tracking of location data on your phone counts as a search requiring Fourth Amendment protections. The ruling addresses geofence warrants—dragnet surveillance that police have used to order companies like Google to hand over location data for every device in a specific area, without naming any particular suspect. These warrants treat innocent bystanders as suspects simply for being nearby. The Supreme Court affirmed that app-generated data on your smartphone is your property, shielded from government search. The decision could reshape how courts view other smartphone data, potentially protecting far more than just location tracking from mass police surveillance.

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