Supreme Court says police need a warrant to obtain Google location data

The Supreme Court on Monday said that police must generally obtain a warrant to gather detailed location data tracked by smartphones, in a case that brings into sharper relief the Constitution’s protections for Americans’ digital privacy.

In a 6-3 vote that scrambled ideological lines, the majority found that a request by police officers for Google to turn over a robbery suspect’s location history constituted a search protected by the Constitution’s guarantee to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. “

An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information — even though for only a limited time, and from a third-party tech company,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority.

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