These changes would appear to make it much more difficult-if not impossible-for Google to provide mass location data in response to a geofence warrant, a change we've been asking Google to implement for years.
Geofence warrants require a provider-almost always Google-to search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all users or devices located within a geographic area during a time period specified by law enforcement.
These warrants violate the Fourth Amendment because they are not targeted to a particular individual or device, like a typical warrant for digital communications.
For this reason, they inevitably sweep up potentially hundreds of people who have no connection to the crime under investigation-and could turn each of those people into a suspect.
Google's announcement outlined three changes to how it will treat Location History data.
First, going forward, this data will be stored, by default, on a user's device, instead of with Google in the cloud.
Second, it will be set by default to delete after three months; currently Google stores the data for at least 18 months.
All of this is fantastic news for users, and we are cautiously optimistic that this will effectively mean the end of geofence warrants.
They threaten privacy and liberty because they not only provide police with sensitive data on individuals, they could turn innocent people into suspects.
Further, they have been used during political protests and threaten free speech and our ability to speak anonymously, without fear of government repercussions.
For these reasons, EFF has repeatedly challenged geofence warrants in criminal cases and worked with other groups to push for legislative bans on their use.
We are not yet prepared to declare total victory.
It remains to be seen whether law enforcement will find a way to access these other stores of location data on a mass basis in the future.
None of Google's changes will prevent law enforcement from issuing targeted warrants for individual users' location data if police have probable cause to support such a search.
At least, we'll take this as a win.
It's very welcome news for technology users as we usher in the end of 2023..
This Cyber News was published on www.eff.org. Publication date: Thu, 14 Dec 2023 01:13:04 +0000