Google has released for the first time the number of geofence warrants it received from U.S authorities. This gives a rare insight into the frequency with which these controversial warrants are issued.
These figures were published Thursday and show that Google has received thousands upon thousands of geofence warrants every quarter since 2018. They have at times been responsible for around one-quarter of all U.S warrants Google receives. Data shows that most geofence warrants are issued by state and local authorities. Federal law enforcement is responsible for only 4% of all geofence orders served on Google.
The data shows that Google received 982 geofence permits in 2018, 8,396 for 2019, and 11,554 for 2020. The figures do not give a complete picture of the warrant volume and does not show how often Google rejects requests that are too broad. Google spokesperson refused to comment.
Albert Fox Cahn (executive director, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, STOP), led efforts by dozens civil rights groups to lobby Google for these numbers. He praised Google for publishing the numbers.
Geofence warrants violate the Constitution by being too broad and intrusive. We look forward to their eventual elimination.
Because they are used to locate people of interest in the area where a crime occurred, geofence warrants can also be called reverse-location warrants. This is done by police asking for a court order to Google to provide details about who was within a specific area (e.g., a radius of just a few hundred feet at a particular time) to assist in identifying potential suspects.
These figures have been withheld by Google for years, partly because Google is a unique entity that uses geofence warrants. Since the beginning of 2019, law enforcement officials have known that Google has a huge repository of location data about its users. This database is called Sensorvault. It was first disclosed by The New York Times in 2019.
Sensorvault claims to hold detailed location data for at least hundreds of million of devices around the world. This data is collected from Android phones that have location data turned on. It also includes data from Google services such as Google Maps, Google Photo and Google Search Results. According to the Associated Press, Google can still track users' locations even if their location history has been paused.
Critics argue that geofence warrants violate the Constitution because Google is required by the authorities to provide data about everyone who was within the same geographical area.
Worse, warrants can be used to entrap innocent persons.
TechCrunch reported that Minneapolis police used a Geofence warrant to identify suspects in the sparked violence following the shooting death of George Floyd. Police requested the location data of one person who was on the ground filming and documenting protests. He was suspected to be close to the violence. NBC News reported last summer that a Gainesville resident, Fla., who provided his information to Google for police investigating a burglary, was able prove his innocence using an app on his smartphone that tracked his exercise activity.
While the courts have not yet deliberated extensively on the legality and validity of geofence warrants in the state, some states are creating laws to counter them. New York legislators proposed a bill that would ban geofence warrants within the state last year amid concerns that police might use these warrants for targeting protesters, as was the case in Minneapolis.
Cahn, who introduced the New York bill last ye, stated that the newly released data would help lawmakers outlaw the technology.
He stated that the number of geofence warrants should not exceed zero.
