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Google Just Killed Warrants That Give Police Access To Location Data

“Geofence warrants,” which allow law enforcement to get location data across a wide area, have become commonplace in recent years.

Cyrus Farivar

Forbes Staff
I'm a senior writer covering everything from scams to surveillance.

Thomas Brewster
Forbes Staff
Senior writer at Forbes covering cybercrime, privacy and surveillance.

Dec 14, 2023, 05:43pm EST

Google to provide Android operating system for media displays in cars

Google has effectively ended the practice of "geofence warrants," where Location History in Google Maps could be obtained by law enforcement.
NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

On Wednesday, Google announced it would soon change the way it would store and access users’ opt-in “Location History” in Google Maps, making the data retention period shorter, and making it impossible for the company to access it. That means it will no longer respond to “geofence warrants,” a controversial legal tool used by local and federal authorities to force Google to hand over information about all users within a given location during a specific timeframe.

Because geofence warrants — also known as reverse-location searches — have the potential to implicate anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of a crime, Google’s decision to end access to location data is a major win for privacy advocates and criminal defense attorneyswho have long decried these warrants.

The company confirmed the impact of the change to Forbes. A current Google employee who was not authorized to speak publicly told Forbes that along with the obvious privacy benefits of encrypting location data, Google made the move to explicitly bring an end to such dragnet location searches.

“The repository of everyone’s location data dating back months or years was a hazard, and Google is trying to clean up that hazard,” Jennifer Granick, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told Forbes. “That is a real benefit for people’s privacy for people's locations over time which is some of the most revealing information about us.”

Armed with facts about a criminal incident, and the vast location history data and associated device data from a geofence warrant, investigators would try to identify a suspect who might have committed a crime.

“These warrants are dangerous,” wrote Jennifer Lynch, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a Wednesday blog post. “They threaten privacy and liberty because they not only provide police with sensitive data on individuals, they could turn innocent people into suspects.”

The change doesn’t prevent the government from getting information on a specific user by demanding their full account details, the Google employee said. But investigators can no longer hand over some coordinates and a timeframe, and compel Google to give it either identifying data or metadata on all users within those parameters.

The move comes just days after the very first federal appellate court, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Virginia, heard oral arguments in a case called United States v. Chatrie, where it was asked to evaluate the fundamental legality of geofence warrants. (The court’s ruling, which only would cover five states largely along the eastern seaboard, will likely not come until next year.)

“Good news from Google, I never thought I’d say that,” said Michael Price, one of Chatrie’s lawyers, and the litigation director for the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“From a practical perspective, judges are often concerned about taking a tool away from law enforcement. But here that decision has just been made and may lower the stakes in some respects for finding it unconstitutional.”

Earlier this year, a California state legislator proposed a bill that would have outlawed the practice for California-based companies – notably, Google – to comply with such court orders. (That bill did not advance in the statehouse.) Now, in one fell swoop, Google has now largely taken the decision out of future judges’ hands.

Google doesn’t typically break down how many geofence warrants it receives, though it broke with tradition in 2021, revealing that more than 25% of the warrant requests it had received in the U.S. at the time were reverse location warrants. The volume of geofence warrants received by Google tripled from the end of 2018 to the end of 2019, reaching 3,000 warrants in a single quarter.

As Forbes has previously reported, practically all geofence warrants are targeted at Google, given its vast amount of search and location data. While other tech firms could theoretically be served with similar warrants, public court records nearly always point to a data request from Google over other companies.

While it may receive more geofence demands than any other tech company, it isn’t the only tech giant being told to respond to them. Apple said earlier this year that it had received such geofence requests, but could not provide the data because of the way it protects user locations.

Such warrants have been used in some of the most significant law enforcement cases in recent memory.

They were used to identify those who stormed Capitol Hill on January 6 and to identify individuals involved in the Kenosha riots of 2020 in response to the shooting of Black citizen Jacob Blake. Forbes learned last year that law enforcement were raiding historical Google location data, going back seven years in one case where cops were trying to gather evidence to send two men to death row.

Geofence warrants have also reportedly been used to investigate relatively minor crimes, such as a wallet stolen from a Utah hospital.

The California District Attorneys Association, a state level group that has previously opposed new restrictions on geofence warrants, noted that in 2022, sheriffs deputies in Santa Clara County used the technique to solve “9 separate residential burglaries.”

Similarly, Orin Kerr, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote on X on Wednesday that “from a public policy standpoint, that seems like a bummer.”

“Geofencing has solved a bunch of really major cases that were otherwise totally cold,” he wrote.

“And there are lots of ways of doing the legal process (including Google's warrant policy, although that's just one way) that are a lot more privacy protective than ordinary warrants. But I can see why this might be in Google's business interest. If there isn't a lot of economic value to Google in keeping the data, and having it means you need to get embroiled in privacy debates over what you do with it, better for Google to drop it.”
 

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Is This the End of Geofence Warrants?​

BY JENNIFER LYNCH

DECEMBER 13, 2023

An animated image showing location pins dropping onto a street map from above, tracing several paths

Google announced this week that it will be making several important changes to the way it handles users’ “Location History” data. 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. The only “evidence” supporting a geofence warrant is that a crime occurred in a particular area, and the perpetrator likely carried a cell phone that shared location data with Google. 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.

Geofence warrants have been possible because Google collects and stores specific user location data (which Google calls “Location History” data) altogether in a massive database called “Sensorvault.” Google reported several years ago that geofence warrants make up 25% of all warrants it receives each year.

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. Finally, if users choose to back up their data to the cloud, Google will “automatically encrypt your backed-up data so no one can read it, including Google.”

All of this is fantastic news for users, and we are cautiously optimistic that this will effectively mean the end of geofence warrants. These warrants are dangerous. 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 duringpolitical protests and threaten free speech and our ability to speak anonymously, without fear of government repercussions. For these reasons, EFF hasrepeatedly challenged geofence warrants in criminal cases and worked with other groups (including tech companies) to push forlegislative bans on their use.

However, we are not yet prepared to declare total victory. Google’s collection of users’ location data isn’t limited to just the “Location History” data searched in response to geofence warrants; Google collects additional location information as well. 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. Also, none of Google’s changes will prevent law enforcement from issuing targeted warrants for individual users’ location data—outside of Location History—if police have probable cause to support such a search.

But for now, 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.
 

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Google will stop telling law enforcement which users were near a crime​


By BLOOMBERG | wordpress@medianewsgroup.com

PUBLISHED: December 15, 2023 at 7:03 a.m. | UPDATED: December 15, 2023 at 7:07 a.m.

By Davey Alba | Bloomberg

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is changing its Maps tool so that the company no longer has access to users’ individual location histories, cutting off its ability to respond to law enforcement warrants that ask for data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime.

Google is changing its Location History feature on Google Maps, according to a blog post this week. The feature, which Google says is off by default, helps users remember where they’ve been. The company said Thursday that for users who have it enabled, location data will soon be saved directly on users’ devices, blocking Google from being able to see it, and, by extension, blocking law enforcement from being able to demand that information from Google.

“Your location information is personal,” said Marlo McGriff, director of product for Google Maps, in the blog post. “We’re committed to keeping it safe, private and in your control.”

The change comes three months after a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation that found police across the US were increasingly using warrants to obtain location and search data from Google, even for nonviolent cases, and even for people who had nothing to do with the crime.

“It’s well past time,” said Jennifer Lynch, the general counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that defends digital civil liberties. “We’ve been calling on Google to make these changes for years, and I think it’s fantastic for Google users, because it means that they can take advantage of features like location history without having to fear that the police will get access to all of that data.”


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Google said it would roll out the changes gradually through the next year on its own Android and Apple Inc.’s iOS mobile operating systems, and that users will receive a notification when the update comes to their account. The company won’t be able to respond to new geofence warrants once the update is complete, including for people who choose to save encrypted backups of their location data to the cloud.“It’s a good win for privacy rights and sets an example,” said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. The move validates what litigators defending the privacy of location data have long argued in court: that just because a company might hold data as part of its business operations, that doesn’t mean users have agreed the company has a right to share it with a third party.

Lynch, the EFF lawyer, said that while Google deserves credit for the move, it’s long been the only tech company that that the EFF and other civil-liberties groups have seen responding to geofence warrants. “It’s great that Google is doing this, but at the same time, nobody else has been storing and collecting data in the same way as Google,” she said. Apple, which also has an app for Maps, has said it’s technically unable to supply the sort of location data police want.

There’s still another kind of warrant that privacy advocates are concerned about: so-called reverse keyword search warrants, where police can ask a technology company to provide data on the people who have searched for a given term. “Search queries can be extremely sensitive, even if you’re just searching for an address,” Lynch said.

–With assistance from Julia Love.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
 

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Updates to Location History and new controls coming soon to Maps


Dec 12, 2023

3 min read

Timeline will soon be saved on your device, and new controls in Maps

Marlo McGriff

Director of Product, Google Maps



People turn to Google Maps to make their lives easier — from seeing how crowded a bus will be or when a restaurant is busy to remembering a beach they visited years ago on vacation. These helpful features are possible because of location data. And with Google, managing location data is simple thanks to tools like auto-delete and Incognito mode. Today, we’re introducing new updates to give you even more control over this important, personal information.

Coming soon: Your Timeline saved on your device

The Timeline feature in Maps helps you remember places you’ve been and is powered by a setting called Location History. If you’re among the subset of users who have chosen to turn Location History on (it’s off by default), soon your Timeline will be saved right on your device — giving you even more control over your data. Just like before, you can delete all or part of your information at any time or disable the setting entirely.

If you’re getting a new phone or are worried about losing your existing one, you can always choose to back up your data to the cloud so it doesn’t get lost. We’ll automatically encrypt your backed-up data so no one can read it, including Google.

Additionally, when you first turn on Location History, the auto-delete control will be set to three months by default, which means that any data older than that will be automatically deleted. Previously this option was set to 18 months. If you want to save memories to your Timeline for a longer period, don’t worry — you can always choose to extend the period or turn off auto-delete controls altogether.

These changes will gradually roll out through the next year on Android and iOS, and you’ll receive a notification when this update comes to your account.

A screenshot of Google Maps with an in-product notification saying that your Timeline is now created on your device.


Soon your Timeline will be saved right on your device — giving you even more control over your data.​

A screenshot of Google Maps with an in-product notification that prompts users to back up their Timeline.


Getting a new phone (or worried you’ll lose yours)? You can choose to back up your data to the cloud — we’ll automatically encrypt it end to end.​



Delete activity related to specific places, right from Maps

Say you’re planning a surprise birthday party, and you get directions to a nearby bakery to pick up the cake. Soon, you’ll be able to see all your recent activity on Maps related to the bakery in one central place, and easily delete your searches, directions, visits, and shares with just a few taps. The ability to delete place-related activity from Maps starts rolling out on Android and iOS in the coming weeks.


Soon, you’ll be able to see and delete all your recent activity on Maps related to a place.​



Access key location controls right from the blue dot in Maps

The blue dot, which shows where you are on Google Maps, now brings key location controls right to your fingertips. Just tap it, and at a glance, you'll see whether your Location History or Timeline settings are turned on and whether you’ve given Maps access to your device’s location. New blue dot controls start rolling out in the coming weeks on Android and iOS.


Just tap the blue dot and you'll see whether your Location History or Timeline settings are turned on and whether you’ve given Maps access to your device’s location.​

Your location information is personal. We’re committed to keeping it safe, private and in your control. Remember: Google Maps never sells your data to anyone, including advertisers. So you can spend less time worrying about your data, and more time exploring new places, getting where you need to go or hanging out with friends — all with the help of Maps.
 

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"Code is Law" :ohhh:

they did this 3 months after the bloomberg article taht cause bad press for them. working faster than congress.:wow:
 
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