Google to Change How It Handles Location History Data, Seemingly Ending Controversial ‘Geofence Warrants’
Jennifer Lynch, writing for the EFF:
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.
Google’s announcement, from Marlo McGriff, director of product for Google Maps:
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.
The reason these overly broad geofence warrants “almost always” were specific to Google is that Apple never collected location data that could be collected in the aggregate like this. From Apple’s most recent government transparency report (PDF), covering the first half of 2022:
Apple may also receive requests from government agencies seeking
customer data related to specific latitude and longitudes
coordinates (geofence) for a specified time period. Apple does not
have any data to provide in response to geofence requests.
I checked with a source at Apple, and they believe they have never collected or stored geolocation data in a manner that can be linked to groups of individuals in a certain area or areas.
Good on Google, though, for changing this.
★
Jennifer Lynch, writing for the EFF:
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.
Google’s announcement, from Marlo McGriff, director of product for Google Maps:
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.
The reason these overly broad geofence warrants “almost always” were specific to Google is that Apple never collected location data that could be collected in the aggregate like this. From Apple’s most recent government transparency report (PDF), covering the first half of 2022:
Apple may also receive requests from government agencies seeking
customer data related to specific latitude and longitudes
coordinates (geofence) for a specified time period. Apple does not
have any data to provide in response to geofence requests.
I checked with a source at Apple, and they believe they have never collected or stored geolocation data in a manner that can be linked to groups of individuals in a certain area or areas.
Good on Google, though, for changing this.