Google Not Subject to Geofence Search Warrant for Time Being

A geofence warrant application, submitted by officers investigating the theft of prescription drugs, to obtain mobile phone location information from Google was denied as too broad by a federal district court in Illinois.

In what it said is the first federal court case analyzing the Fourth Amendment requirements for geofence warrants, the opinion by Judge Gabriel A. Fuentes of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said the application cast too broad a net to survive scrutiny.

A geofence is a virtual fence around a particular location for particular times. Because the government knows that an unknown ...