Surveillance, Geofence Warrants, and the Fourth Amendment: Recent Developments

Geofence warrants are rapidly becoming one of the most common digital surveillance tools in America, forcing companies to identify large numbers of users in a specified area through a single court order. The novel tactic can track thousands of people over a huge area for lengthy periods of time, all with no individualized probable cause. Geofence warrants raise alarming questions about the practical scope of Fourth Amendment protections at a time when ever more companies collect ever more data on ever more Americans. Currently, there is a circuit split on the constitutionality of these warrants, with competing decisions from the Fourth and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals. These decisions have reached radically different answers to questions about the particularity of geofence warrants and whether a geofence search constitutes a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. Albert Fox Cahn, Founder and Executive Director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) and Information Law Institute (I.L.I.) Practitioner in Residence, will examine the implications of these recent developments and where future court challenges will likely lead.

The event includes a lecture and Q&A. Organized by the Information Law Institute/Privacy Research Group. 

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