Amster Diehl 74 Stan. L. Rev. 385

Stanford Law Review
Volume 74 February 2022
NOTE
Against Geofences
Haley Amster & Brett Diehl*
Abstract. Law enforcement is increasingly relying on a new tool when investigating

crimes with no suspects: geofence warrants. Geofence warrants take advantage of geofence
technology, which constructs a virtually bounded geographic area and identifies all users
present within that area during a given time window. Google, the primary recipient of
geofence warrants, has adopted a policy of objecting to any geofence request that is not a
probable-cause warrant. So far, law enforcement has complied. This has caused courts and
litigators to defer the question of whether, under Carpenter v. United States, a probable-cause
warrant is necessary. Instead, these parties have located the legality of geofence warrants
in less explored regions of the Fourth Amendment as applied to new technologies:
probable-cause and particularity requirements, the few exceptions to those requirements,
and the proper execution of a warrant.
This Note fills an analytical void by providing a comprehensive examination of these less
explored regions. The Note first provides a technology primer, detailing the three steps
involved in geofence warrants: the initial data dump, selective expansion, and unmasking.
It then provides background on relevant Fourth Amendment law, explaining why the
familiar “reasonable expectation of privacy” test has not yet proven dispositive in
geofence-warrant litigation. After cataloguing burgeoning geofence litigation, the Note
examines the initial data dump, identifying the difficulty of meeting probable-cause and
particularity requirements due to the inherent breadth of the search. Here the Note
* Haley Amster is a law clerk at Covington & Burling LLP; J.D., Stanford Law School, 2021.
Brett Diehl is a trial attorney at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc.; J.D., Stanford Law
School, 2021.
Our deepest gratitude to Robert Weisberg for his encouragement, guidance, and insights.
Thanks to Michael W. McConnell, Morgan N. Weiland, and the rest of the
Constitutional Law Center for their support and guidance. Thanks to Jonathan Abel,
David Sklansky, Jonathan Mayer, Orin Kerr, John Ellis, Rick Salgado, Todd Hinnen,
Sierra Villaran, Laura Koenig, the participants of the Constitutional Law Center’s
Works-in-Progress Workshop, and the students of the Legal Studies Workshop for their
helpful comments and feedback throughout the drafting process. Thanks to editors and
friends—Marty Berger, Marc Brunton, Julia Irwin, Jenny Jiao, Dan Kim, Matt Krantz,
David Levin, Caro Sundermeyer, Daphne Thompson, Mitchell Wong, Jeffrey Xia, and
Peggy Xu—who made this Note better with their insightful edits and commentary. And
thanks to Tal Klement for immediately recognizing the many questions that geofence
warrants raise. All views expressed are our own and do not reflect those of any current or
former employers.
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answers the question of whether probable cause must be shown for each device included in
a digital search, based in part on jurisprudence regarding checkpoints, area warrants, and
searches of many people in a commercial location. The Note next examines the selective
expansion and unmasking steps, arguing (1) that geofence warrants are unconstitutional
general warrants because of the discretion given to law-enforcement officials in warrant
execution; and (2) that these steps may impermissibly increase a warrant’s scope or
constitute multiple searches under one warrant. The Note concludes by considering the
broader implications of corporate policy shaping Fourth Amendment guardrails.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................388
I. The Technology Behind a Geofence Request.............................................................................393
A. The SensorVault ...............................................................................................................................394
B. Warrant Execution ........................................................................................................................398
1. Initial data dump ....................................................................................................................399
2. Selective expansion ..............................................................................................................404
3. Unmasking ................................................................................................................................405
II. Geofences and the Fourth Amendment.........................................................................................406
A. Is a Geofence a Fourth Amendment “Search”? .................................................................406
B. Probable Cause, Particularity, and Warrant Execution ............................................410
III. How Courts Are Handling Geofence Warrants .......................................................................411
A. Northern District of Illinois Magistrate Opinions .......................................................412
1. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: first denial ......................................................413
2. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: second denial ................................................414
3. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: third denial ....................................................415
4. Arson investigation ..............................................................................................................416
B. District of Kansas Magistrate Opinion ................................................................................417
C. Ongoing State and Federal Litigation ..................................................................................419
D. Preliminary Takeaways from the Early Litigation......................................................421
IV. Constitutionality of the Initial Data Dump.................................................................................422
A. Probable Cause...................................................................................................................................422
1. Geofences as Ybarra searches ..........................................................................................423
2. Geofences as checkpoints ..................................................................................................425
3. Geofences as area warrants ..............................................................................................427
4. Takeaways .................................................................................................................................429
B. Issues with the Particularity Requirement ........................................................................431
V. Constitutionality of Selective Expansion and Unmasking ................................................433
A. Geofences as General Warrants ..............................................................................................433
B. Selective Expansions as Increases in Scope .......................................................................435
C. Multiple Searches.............................................................................................................................436
VI. Corporate Policy and Fourth Amendment Protections .......................................................437
A. Absence of Legislation ..................................................................................................................438
B. Corporate Constitutional Policy .............................................................................................440
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................444
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Introduction*
Suppose a law-enforcement officer investigating a hit-and-run sets up a
checkpoint near the site of the incident. The investigating officer stops each
passerby and examines their cell phone location history to determine if they
were present at the crime scene. This officer would be in violation of the
Fourth Amendment for employing a checkpoint in the “ordinary enterprise of
investigating” a crime.1 Now suppose that officer obtains a warrant compelling
Google to do the same thing—digitally. Different result?2
Since roughly 2016, law enforcement has used geofence warrants to help
revive criminal investigations gone cold.3 These warrants have become
increasingly common,4 and there are even indications that a warrant-
authorized geofence was used to investigate the January 6, 2021 attempted
insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.5
Geofence warrants “work in reverse” from traditional search warrants.6
Instead of law enforcement requesting that a third-party provider produce the
location history of a particular suspect’s device, geofence warrants proceed first
by giving investigators access to data for all cellular devices that were present
near a crime scene around the time when the crime occurred. Through a series
* This Note is current as of November 2021. Subsequent changes in the legal landscape
are not addressed.
1. See City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 44, 48 (2000) (invalidating a checkpoint
employed “primarily for the ordinary enterprise of investigating crimes”); cf. Illinois v.
Lidster, 540 U.S. 419, 423, 427-28 (2004) (upholding a checkpoint because its primary
purpose was not to “determine whether a vehicle’s occupants were committing a crime,
but to ask vehicle occupants, as members of the public, for their help in providing
information about a crime in all likelihood committed by others”).
2. Credit is due to Dennis Martin for inspiring our introduction. See Dennis Martin, Note,
Demystifying Hash Searches, 70 STAN. L. REV. 691, 693 (2018).
3. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police, N.Y.
TIMES (Apr. 13, 2019), https://perma.cc/P75R-DZCU (to locate, select “View the live
page”). We use “geofence warrant” to align with the term most commonly used by
litigators and commentators. See, e.g., id. But the precise term is “reverse location”
warrant. See, e.g., Thomas Brewster, To Catch a Robber, the FBI Attempted an
Unprecedented Grab for Google Location Data, FORBES (Aug. 15, 2018, 9:00 AM EDT),
https://perma.cc/XG3N-JEGG; Tyler Dukes, To Find Suspects, Police Quietly Turn to
Google, WRAL.COM (Mar. 15, 2018, 5:05 AM), https://perma.cc/RFU9-XDF7.
4. Alfred Ng, Privacy Groups Demand Google Disclose Details on Geofence Warrants, CNET
(Dec. 8, 2020, 5:00 AM PT), https://perma.cc/TGS4-DUE5.
5. Statement of Facts at 5-6, United States v. Groseclose, No. 21-mj-00250 (D.D.C. Feb. 22,
2021), 2021 U.S. Dist. Ct. Pleadings LEXIS 132, ECF No. 1-1; Drew Harwell & Craig
Timberg, How America’s Surveillance Networks Helped the FBI Catch the Capitol Mob,
WASH. POST (Apr. 2, 2021, 9:00 AM EDT), https://perma.cc/Q257-LHYT.
6. Sidney Fussell, Creepy “Geofence” Finds Anyone Who Went Near a Crime Scene, WIRED
(Sept. 4, 2020, 7:00 AM), https://perma.cc/Y3S8-ZT8Q.
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of iterative steps between the provider and law enforcement—without the

further involvement of a magistrate judge—the provider produces additional
location data with the goal of (1) helping law enforcement figure out which
devices could have been those of the perpetrators; and (2) ultimately revealing
the identities of the suspects.
Such sweeping searches can unearth the location history of a startling
number of users. One 2019 geofence warrant authorized a geofence covering a
total of 29,387 square meters (or 7.4 acres—about the size of five and a half
American football fields) over a period of nine hours.7 In response, the
provider returned to law enforcement the location data of 1,494 cell phones.8
So far, Google has been the primary recipient of geofence warrants. This is
in large part due to Google’s location-history database, the SensorVault. Google
uses the SensorVault to target advertisements, determine when stores are busy,
help users track their movements, and provide traffic estimates.9 But law-
enforcement officials now also use the SensorVault for criminal investigations.
In response to increasing government requests for information, Google has
crafted a three-step, self-directed process for law-enforcement officials trying
to obtain user data. As Google explained in a 2020 court filing, it has “instituted
a policy of objecting to any warrant that fail[s] to include” its mandated
tailoring process.10
In recent years, the number of SensorVault-directed geofence warrants has
grown rapidly. According to data released by Google, geofence warrants
“recently constitut[ed] more than 25% of all [U.S.] warrants” received by the
company.11 Google disclosed that it received 982 geofence-warrant requests in
7. Thomas Brewster, Google Hands Feds 1,500 Phone Locations in Unprecedented “Geofence”
Search, FORBES (Dec. 11, 2019, 7:45 AM EST), https://perma.cc/34QP-XMKY.
8. Id.
9. See Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Google’s Sensorvault Is a Boon for Law Enforcement. This Is
How It Works., N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 13, 2019), https://perma.cc/FPL9-KRX6; Declaration of
Marlo McGriff ¶ 26, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Mar. 11, 2020),
ECF No. 96-1. For example, if a cell phone owner is walking toward a Starbucks, she
might see a Starbucks coupon appear on her device (because her device sensed that she
was near the store). Once she goes into the Starbucks and uses her coupon, her device
registers that information. Google tracks and stores such advertisement-servicing and
usage data.
10. Declaration of Sarah Rodriguez ¶ 5, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va.
Mar. 11, 2020), ECF No. 96-2.
11. Google, Supplemental Information on Geofence Warrants in the United States 1 (n.d.),
https://perma.cc/6B34-PPCX. A TechCrunch article notes that Google released this
data in August 2021. See Zack Whittaker, Google Says Geofence Warrants Make Up One-
Quarter of All US Demands, TECHCRUNCH (Aug. 19, 2021, 2:54 PM PDT),
https://perma.cc/V95P-2MMD.
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2018.12 This figure, Google explained in a court document, represented “over a

1,500% increase in the number of geofence requests . . . [as] compared to 2017.”13
In 2019, the number of geofence warrants received by Google increased by a
further 755% over the previous year to 8,396.14 In 2020, the last year for which
specific statistics are publicly available at the time of writing, Google received
11,554 geofence warrants.15 California law enforcement represents the most
frequent geofence-warrant requester, having submitted 3,655 of the 20,932
requests logged by Google over the three-year period.16 Texas law enforcement
came in second with 1,825 geofence warrants submitted to Google.17 By
contrast, federal law enforcement submitted only 928 requests from 2018 to
2020.18
As geofences become more well-known, at least one crime victim’s family
has specifically urged investigators to request a geofence warrant.19 The
Department of Justice’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section
has held discussions with Google about geofences and, in at least one instance,
provided a boilerplate geofence-warrant request form to an FBI agent.20 Hawk
Analytics, which frequently assists law-enforcement investigations across the
country,21 hosted a webinar for law enforcement called “Working with Google
Geofence Reverse Location Search Records” and previously offered an online
tool allowing investigators to obtain a “Google geofence warrant in a few
12. Google, supra note 11, at 2 (to locate, select “View the live page,” and then select
“Download supplemental data as a CSV”).
13. Brief of Amicus Curiae Google LLC in Support of Neither Party Concerning
Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence from a “Geofence” General Warrant (ECF
No. 29) at 3, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Dec. 20, 2019), 2019 WL
8227162, ECF No. 59-1 [hereinafter Google Amicus Brief].
14. Google, supra note 11, at 2 (to locate, select “View the live page,” and then select
“Download supplemental data as a CSV”).
15. Id.
16. Id.
17. Id.
18. Id.
19. Shannon Ryan, Family, Investigators Push for Geofence Warrant in Jason Landry Case,
FOX 7 AUSTIN (May 11, 2021), https://perma.cc/NX7G-4FLK.
20. Mr. Chatrie’s Post-hearing Brief on “Geofence” General Warrant at 3-4, United
States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. May 3, 2021), ECF No. 205 [hereinafter
Chatrie Post-hearing Brief].
21. Sam Richards, Powerful Mobile Phone Surveillance Tool Operates in Obscurity Across the
Country, INTERCEPT (Dec. 23, 2020, 6:31 AM), https://perma.cc/57XS-WX2X.
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‘clicks.’”22 Reports of wrongful arrests due to geofence warrants have already

emerged.23
Courts and legislatures have paid little attention to how the Fourth
Amendment applies to geofence warrants.24 This is largely due to the novelty
of the tool: As of this writing, most litigation has been ex parte, only five
magistrate opinions considering the issue have been unsealed, and some of the
first state and federal challenges by criminal defendants are underway.25 But
the lack of attention may also be due to Google’s unique role. Since the
Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Carpenter v. United States—holding that
the production of seven days’ worth of cell phone location information
constitutes a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant26—litigation and
scholarship have focused on whether non-Carpenter technologies also lead to
22. Working with Google Geofence Reverse Location Search Records, HAWK ANALYTICS (Jan. 23,
2020), https://perma.cc/3QQ4-HAXM; Hawk Analytics (@hawkanalytics), FACEBOOK
(June 17, 2019) (capitalization altered), https://perma.cc/LD5J-QDNY (to locate, select
“View the live page”); Johana Bhuiyan, The New Warrant: How US Police Mine Google for
Your Location and Search History, GUARDIAN (Sept. 16, 2021, 6:00 AM EDT),
https://perma.cc/94H4-ERPF.
23. See infra notes 57-67 and accompanying text.
24. See infra Parts III, VI.A. And the literature has only begun to explore the many
questions raised by this new tool. See Note, Geofence Warrants and the Fourth
Amendment, 134 HARV. L. REV. 2508, 2515-20 (2021) (considering the question of when a
geofence search occurs and arguing that it occurs when the provider searches its
database, not when law enforcement receives the requested data); Tim O’Brien,
Suspicionless Search: Geofence Warrants and the Fourth Amendment 19-31 (Aug. 6,
2021) (unpublished manuscript), https://perma.cc/L7C3-SYZ3 (highlighting the
shortcomings of anonymization in the geofence-warrant process and arguing that
Fourth Amendment case law and statutory protections are insufficient to protect users’
privacy); Donna Lee Elm, Geofence Warrants: Challenging Digital Dragnets, CRIM. JUST.,
Summer 2020, at 7, 12-13 (recommending limitations on the use of geofence warrants,
such as allowing these warrants only for violent offenses and only after exhausting
traditional investigation methods). See generally John C. Ellis, Jr., Google Data and
Geofence Warrant Process, NLSBLOG.ORG (Jan. 8, 2021), https://perma.cc/E7CW-7NZJ
(explaining geofence-warrant technology and execution); Nathaniel Sobel, Do Geofence
Warrants Violate the Fourth Amendment?, LAWFARE (Feb. 24, 2020, 1:03 PM),
https://perma.cc/Y4MV-FTVR (detailing the motion to suppress filed in United
States v. Chatrie, a case discussed below). This Note breaks new ground by focusing on
how to properly conduct the probable-cause inquiry, explaining that courts must focus
the inquiry on each device swept up in the geofence search. This Note also makes a
novel contribution by introducing analogies to checkpoints, area warrants, and
searches of many people in a commercial location. Finally, this Note is the first to
highlight the broader impacts of Google’s role in this emerging issue, arguing that the
corporation’s policies have played an outsized role in shaping law-enforcement norms
and practices.
25. See infra Part III.
26. 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2212, 2217 n.3, 2220-21 (2018).
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Fourth Amendment searches.27 For geofences specifically, however, Google’s

policy of objecting to any request not derived from a probable-cause warrant
has deferred the familiar “is this a Fourth Amendment search” question.28
Questions surrounding geofence warrants’ legality thus occupy less explored
regions at the intersection of new technology and the Fourth Amendment:
probable cause, particularity, and proper warrant execution.
This Note fills an analytical void by providing a comprehensive
examination of these underexplored Fourth Amendment warrant
requirements. It proceeds in six parts. Part I is a technology primer, detailing
the three steps involved in geofence warrants: the initial data dump, selective
expansion, and unmasking. Part II provides a background of relevant Fourth
Amendment doctrine, including a discussion of how Carpenter intersects with
geofence warrants. Part III catalogs burgeoning geofence litigation, with a
special focus on the first few federal magistrate opinions on the issue. Part IV
considers the initial data dump, identifying the difficulty of meeting probable-
27. See id. at 2220 (noting the decision’s narrow scope). For post-Carpenter litigation, see
generally United States v. Moore-Bush, 963 F.3d 29 (1st Cir.) (holding that Carpenter does
not extend to eight months of video surveillance conducted using a pole camera),
vacated and reh’g en banc granted, 982 F.3d 50 (1st Cir. 2020); State v. Sylvestre, 254 So. 3d
986 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2018) (holding that Carpenter extends to cell-site simulator
location data); and United States v. Diggs, 385 F. Supp. 3d 648 (N.D. Ill. 2019) (holding that
Carpenter extends to the acquisition of a vehicle’s long-term GPS data). For post-
Carpenter scholarship applying the decision in a variety of contexts, see, for example,
Orin S. Kerr, Implementing Carpenter (USC L. Legal Stud. Working Paper, Paper
No. 18-29, 2018), https://perma.cc/XG96-NMTR (arguing that Carpenter should apply
to non-content internet records if those records are collected by new digital
technologies, are collected without a user’s meaningful consent, and reveal intimate
personal details); Susan Freiwald & Stephen Wm. Smith, The Supreme Court, 2017
Term—Comment: The Carpenter Chronicle: A Near-Perfect Surveillance, 132 HARV. L. REV.
205, 227-31 (2018) (suggesting Carpenter may extend to real-time location information,
fewer than seven days of historical location information, and other technologies);
Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Future-Proofing the Fourth Amendment, HARV. L. REV. BLOG
(June 25, 2018), https://perma.cc/A2SX-Z9GP (“[A]lmost everything we do in the
digital age—social media, internet searches, the Internet of Things—has locational
privacy implications because they track location, and Carpenter suggests that they
might also have Fourth Amendment implications.”); Paul Ohm, The Many Revolutions of
Carpenter, 32 HARV. J.L. & TECH. 357, 375-76 (2019) (suggesting that Carpenter could
extend to real-time location information); Lara M. McMahon, Note, Limited Privacy in
“Pings”: Why Law Enforcement’s Use of Cell-Site Simulators Does Not Categorically Violate
the Fourth Amendment, 77 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 981, 1027 (2020) (arguing that Carpenter
does not extend to all cell phone pings); Emma Lux, Student Contribution, Privacy in
the Dumps: Analyzing Cell Tower Dumps Under the Fourth Amendment, 57 AM. CRIM. L.
REV. ONLINE 109, 113-18 (2020) (analyzing whether Carpenter extends to tower dumps);
and Stephanie Foster, Note, Should the Use of Automated License Plate Readers Constitute a
Search After Carpenter v. United States?, 97 WASH. U. L. REV. 221, 238-39 (2019)
(asserting that Carpenter extends to aggregated data from automated license-plate
readers).
28. See infra Part II.A.
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cause and particularity requirements due to the inherent breadth of the search.
Here the Note analogizes to the search of many people located at the scene of a
crime in Ybarra v. Illinois,29 the use of digital checkpoints, and the use of area
warrants. It then explores the difficulty of tailoring by (1) examining digital
searches of multi-occupancy buildings; (2) surveying scholarship and litigation
regarding tower dumps; and (3) suggesting particularized search protocols that
could meet constitutional requirements. Part V examines the selective
expansion and unmasking steps, arguing that geofence warrants are
unconstitutional general warrants because of the discretion given to law-
enforcement officials in warrant execution. Part V also argues that the
selective-expansion and unmasking steps may impermissibly increase a
warrant’s scope or constitute multiple searches under one warrant. Finally,
Part VI considers the broader implications of corporate policy driving Fourth
Amendment guardrails.
I. The Technology Behind a Geofence Request

A geofence warrant compels Google to produce data from its SensorVault
location-history database.30 Under Google’s threat of noncompliance, most
geofence warrants proceed in three steps: the initial data dump, selective
expansion, and unmasking. This Part first explains the SensorVault and then
elaborates on each of the three execution steps, drawing on unsealed search
warrants from federal and state investigations as examples.
29. 444 U.S. 85, 87-88 (1979).

30. See Valentino-DeVries, supra note 3 (“Investigators who spoke with The New York
Times said they had not sent geofence warrants to companies other than Google, and
Apple said it did not have the ability to perform those searches.”). Google is the only
company known to release location-history data in this manner. Leila Barghouty,
What Are Geofence Warrants?, MARKUP (Sept. 1, 2020, 8:00 AM ET), https://perma.cc/
XQ3Z-K88H. Microsoft recently stated that it “does not and would not be in a position
to comply with any warrants seeking such [location] information.” Id. (quoting
Microsoft Assistant General Counsel Hasan Ali). Facebook stated that it does not fulfill
geofence warrants because of its less precise location information and limitations on
data storage. David Uberti, Police Requests for Google Users’ Location Histories Face New
Scrutiny, WALL ST. J. (July 27, 2020, 5:30 AM ET), https://perma.cc/C9DM-SS9E. Lyft
has signaled a potential willingness to fulfill geofence warrants if undefined specificity
conditions are met. Id. Garmin has stated that it would not fulfill geofence warrants if
served because of a belief that such requests are “invasive of our users’ privacy rights.”
Id. (quoting a Garmin representative). Amazon Web Services recently announced that
it will add “Amazon Location” geofence capabilities for companies hosted on its
platform. Renato Losio, AWS Introduces Location Service in Preview, INFOQ (Jan. 3, 2021),
https://perma.cc/S2K6-5PU4.
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A. The SensorVault
Google’s SensorVault is a prodigious pool of consumer location
information, pioneered in part to target advertisements but now routinely
used by law enforcement for geofence warrants.31 Cell-service providers and
other corporations also collect cell-site location information for various
purposes.32 Yet the SensorVault and linked internal Google databases are more
expansive, storing user location information generated from “search queries,”
“users’ IP addresses, device sensors,” and “device signals including GPS,
information cellular networks provide to a device, information from nearby
Wi-Fi networks, and information from nearby Bluetooth devices.”33 Multiple
inputs can be combined to estimate a user’s location “to a high degree of
precision.”34 Google refers collectively to this data, regardless of its source, as
location history (LH). Absent a user request or account closure, LH is stored
within Google’s databases for at least eighteen months.35
Google’s LH practices affect the vast majority of people living in the
United States. Eighty-five percent of Americans currently own a smartphone
31. See supra note 9 and accompanying text. For examples of commercial uses of location
data, see Geofencing Advertising Platform, GROUNDTRUTH, https://perma.cc/MWE6-
DUCL (archived Oct. 22, 2021); Sarah Berry, Geofencing Marketing: The New Way to
Market Your Business, WEBFX (Apr. 20, 2021), https://perma.cc/4MKB-RYK8; and
Justin Croxton, Geofencing Advertising: What Is Geo Fencing & How Does It Work,
PROPELLANT MEDIA (Jan. 5, 2021), https://perma.cc/CDP6-NTAM. The use of location
data and geofences to target advertisements raises privacy and ethics questions beyond
the scope of this Note. See, e.g., Kearston L. Wesner, Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side
of the Geofence? The First Amendment and Privacy Implications of Unauthorized Smartphone
Messages, 10 CASE W. RSRV. J.L. TECH. & INTERNET, no. 1, 2019, at 1, 1-3 (describing a
settlement regarding geofence-based advertisements that targeted women in the
vicinity of abortion clinics and encouraged them not to terminate their pregnancies);
John G. Browning, Geo-Fencing: Free Speech or Tainting the Jury Pool?, J.L. & TECH. TEX.
(Nov. 15, 2019), https://perma.cc/9EVH-F7RK (describing Monsanto’s use of geofences
to target ads highlighting its herbicide’s safety in the lead-up to a California trial on the
issue).
32. See supra note 31; see also, e.g., AT&T, AT&T Location Information Services 1-2 (2012),
https://perma.cc/8E5N-FV4C.
33. Exhibit 202 at 4, State v. Google LLC, No. CV2020-006219 (Ariz. Super. Ct. July 17,
2020); see also Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 10 (“[I]nputs include not only
information related to the locations of nearby cell sites, but also GPS signals . . . or
signals from nearby Wi-Fi networks or Bluetooth devices.”).
34. Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 10. Google’s geofence-warrant results normally
include an indication of location precision, shown via a radius in which Google’s
algorithm has calculated the user is likely located. A smaller radius, resulting from
more location inputs or better quality, indicates a more precise location. See infra
Figure 3; infra notes 73-74 and accompanying text.
35. See Jessica Bursztynsky, Google Just Announced It Will Automatically Delete Your Location
History by Default, CNBC (updated June 24, 2020, 12:11 PM EDT), https://perma.cc/
RN7M-6XQF.
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with mobile internet capabilities.36 Approximately 46.8% of these U.S.

smartphones operate on Google’s Android operating system.37 Across
platforms, three of the five most popular smartphone applications in the
United States—Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Search, each accessed on over
50% of U.S. smartphones—belong to Google.38 And for the over 220 million
estimated U.S. mobile search users,39 96% of searches were conducted via
Google as of the first quarter of 2020.40 Google’s servers capture location data
from all of these services: the Android operating system, Google-owned mobile
applications, and in-browser mobile searches via Google.41
Presumably because of its vast information troves, Google is receiving
geofence-warrant requests at an alarming rate. Google publishes the aggregate
figures for subpoenas, court orders, warrants, and other requests that it
receives from U.S. law enforcement, but until recently it did not release
specific geofence-warrant tallies.42 In 2019, an anonymous Google employee
told the New York Times that the corporation received upwards of 180 geofence
warrants in one week.43 In January 2020, in what experts speculated could be a
tactic to deter law-enforcement requests, Google began charging $245 for
36. Mobile Fact Sheet, PEW RSCH. CTR. (Apr. 7, 2021), https://perma.cc/5UX9-P7PU.
37. S. O’Dea, U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Share by Operating Platform 2012-2021, by Month,
STATISTA (Aug. 11, 2021), https://perma.cc/3KRQ-TS53 (to locate, select “View the live
page”).
38. See Statista Rsch. Dep’t, Reach of Most Popular U.S. Smartphone Apps 2021, STATISTA
(July 26, 2021), https://perma.cc/9MVQ-K8QC (to locate, select “View the live page”). A
fourth, YouTube, is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. See id.
39. Statista Rsch. Dep’t, Number of Mobile Search Users in the United States 2014 -2020,
STATISTA, https://perma.cc/PV5B-3VWZ (archived Oct. 22, 2021) (to locate, select
“View the live page”).
40. Joseph Johnson, U.S. Total & Mobile Organic Search Visits 2020, by Engine, STATISTA
(Feb. 22, 2021), https://perma.cc/43LF-PNRW.
41. See How Google Uses Location Information, GOOGLE, https://perma.cc/D4ZX-C9A3
(archived Oct. 22, 2021). The government has explained the ubiquity of Google
products in court filings. “In its affidavit, the government asserts that approximately
97% of smartphones in the world use Google applications or Google’s operating
system,” which would allow those smartphones to appear in a geofence if present
within its boundaries. In re the Search of: Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by
Google, as Further Described in Attachment A, No. 20-mc-00297, 2020 WL 5491763, at
*3 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020). “[T]he government asserts a likelihood ‘that at any given time,
a mobile telephone, regardless of make, is interfacing in some manner with a Google
application, service, and/or platform[.]’ ” Id. at *3 n.3 (alteration in original) (quoting the
government’s filing). “We assume this reasonable conclusion to be true, and thus
reasonably conclude that likely hundreds of cellphones other than the suspect’s
cellphone would be included in the requested geofences.” Id.
42. See Global Requests for User Information, GOOGLE, https://perma.cc/2YTD-ZMEV
(archived Oct. 23, 2021); Ng, supra note 4; supra note 11.
43. Valentino-DeVries, supra note 3.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
compliance with a search warrant.44 Tallies have continued to grow, however,

and Google received an average of more than thirty geofence warrants per day
in 2020.45
Police have not limited the use of the SensorVault to egregious or violent
crimes.46 According to an early geofence-warrant exposé by Minnesota Public
Radio, police obtained geofence warrants for an investigation into who had
stolen a pickup truck and, separately, $650 worth of tires.47 Separately,
Minneapolis investigators used a geofence warrant to identify individuals near
an AutoZone where a man had smashed windows during protests over the
murder of George Floyd.48
It remains unclear if a user can choose to withhold all of her location
history from Google, which has asserted that LH sharing is optional for its
users.49 But manually deactivating all LH sharing remains difficult and
discouraged.50 A consumer-fraud lawsuit brought by Arizona’s Attorney
General alleged that while “Google told users [that] . . . ‘[w]ith Location History
off, the places you go are no longer stored,’” Google “would surreptitiously
collect location information through other settings such as Web & App
Activity and use that information to sell ads.”51 The Associated Press “found
that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location
data even if you’ve used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from
44. See Gabriel J.X. Dance & Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Have a Search Warrant for Data?
Google Wants You to Pay, N.Y. TIMES (Jan. 24, 2020), https://perma.cc/NZP5-5924.
45. See supra notes 11-18 and accompanying text.
46. Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman has lamented the government’s “undisciplined . . .
overuse” of geofence warrants in “run-of-the-mill cases that present no urgency or
imminent danger.” In re the Search, 2020 WL 5491763, at *8.
47. Tony Webster, How Did the Police Know You Were Near a Crime Scene? Google Told Them,
MPR NEWS (Feb. 8, 2019, 1:10 PM), https://perma.cc/HF3G-BP2V.
48. Zack Whittaker, Minneapolis Police Tapped Google to Identify George Floyd Protestors,
TECHCRUNCH (Feb. 6, 2021, 8:00 AM PST), https://perma.cc/Y6BX-GHLL.
49. Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 5. (“Holders of Google accounts can control
various account-level and service-level settings and preferences. ‘Location History’ . . .
is an optional account-level Google service. It does not function automatically for
Google users.”); Manage Your Location History, GOOGLE ACCT. HELP, https://perma.cc/
GP93-XARG (archived Oct. 23, 2021) (“Location History is turned off by default for
your Google Account and can only be turned on if you opt in.”).
50. See Barbara Krasnoff, Android 101: How to Stop Location Tracking, VERGE (Aug. 25, 2020,
3:04 PM EDT), https://perma.cc/X6EQ-5XQ5 (describing the difficult process to
deactivate Google location history); Ryan Nakashima, AP Exclusive: Google Tracks Your
Movements, Like It or Not, AP NEWS (Aug. 13, 2018), https://perma.cc/CB84-X5KE
(same).
51. Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief ¶ 8, State ex rel. Brnovich v. Google LLC,
No. CV2020-006219 (Ariz. Super. Ct. May 27, 2020) (quoting Nakashima, supra note 50).
396
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
doing so,” and researchers at Princeton University confirmed these findings.52

In 2018, an internal Google email explained that “[t]he current [user interface]
feels like it is designed to make [limiting LH collection] possible, yet [it is]
difficult enough that people won’t figure it out.”53 Another internal email in
2019 expressed similar frustration: “Speaking as a user . . . I thought I had
location tracking turned off on my phone. However the location toggle in the
quick settings was on.”54 The email’s author continued: “[O]ur messaging
around this is enough to confuse a privacy focused [software engineer]. That’s
not good.”55 As one Google employee wrote, “I’d want to know which of these
[location-sharing] options (some? all? none?) enter me into the wrongful-arrest
lottery.”56
And the wrongful-arrest lottery has already begun. In 2018, Arizona police
officers jailed Jorge Molina for six days on suspicion of murder.57 Officers told
Molina that they knew “one hundred percent, without a doubt” that his phone
was at the scene of the crime based on a Google geofence warrant.58 In reality,
Molina had lent an old phone, inadvertently still signed into his Google
account, to the man police later arrested for the murder.59 In addition to the six
days he spent behind bars, Molina lost his job, and “[w]hen he started looking
for a new job, he couldn’t get an interview or pass a background check, since a
quick Google search showed he had been accused of murder.”60 The state
impounded Molina’s car during the investigation; eventually, without any
income to support himself, Molina lost title to the vehicle.61
In another nightmarish scenario, Florida police using a geofence warrant
to investigate a burglary turned to Google to obtain “more information” on
52. Nakashima, supra note 50; see also Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich), TWITTER
(May 27, 2020, 3:29 PM), https://perma.cc/9WYV-QSMB (“We began our investigation
of Google following a 2018 @AP article that detailed how users are lulled into a false
sense of security, believing Google provides users the ability to actually disable their
Location History.”).
53. Exhibit 18 at 6, State ex rel. Brnovich v. Google LLC, No. CV2020-006219 (Ariz. Super.
Ct. Aug. 21, 2020).
54. Exhibit 215 at 6, State ex rel. Brnovich v. Google LLC, No. CV2020-006219 (Ariz. Super.
Ct. Aug. 21, 2020).
55. Id.
56. Id. at 4-5.
57. Fussell, supra note 6; see also Meg O’Connor, Avondale Man Sues After Google Data Leads
to Wrongful Arrest for Murder, PHX. NEW TIMES (Jan. 16, 2020, 9:11 AM),
https://perma.cc/63PT-K2JM.
58. Fussell, supra note 6 (quoting the police report).
59. See id.
60. O’Connor, supra note 57.
61. Id.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
Zachary McCoy.62 Google’s legal investigations support team notified McCoy

that Google would release his data absent court intervention.63 With the help
of an attorney, McCoy realized that he was swept into the geofence because, on
the day of the burglary, he biked past “the victim’s house three times within an
hour, part of his frequent loops through his neighborhood.”64 An avid biker,
McCoy used an application called Runkeeper to record his bike rides;
Runkeeper “relied on his phone’s location services, which fed his movements
to Google.”65 After police withdrew the warrant, McCoy speculated that his
entanglement may have ended differently “if his parents hadn’t given him
several thousand dollars to hire [a lawyer].”66
These are but two egregious cases highlighted by news outlets. With
hundreds of new geofence warrants filed each week, many similar cases
presumably lie unreported.67 We now turn to what makes the entanglement of
innocents possible by examining the breadth of geofence warrants’ reach and
the typical geofence-warrant execution process.
B. Warrant Execution
Google has crafted a three-step warrant execution process to handle
geofence requests.68 As a Google employee stated in a court declaration, “[e]arly
‘geofence’ legal requests sought LH data that would identify all Google users
who were in a geographical area in a given time frame”—essentially an
unmasked data dump.69 To “ensure privacy protections for Google users and to
protect against overbroad disclosures . . . Google instituted a policy of objecting
to any warrant that failed to include deidentification and narrowing
measures.”70 This has led to the now “typical[]” three-step protocol.71
62. Jon Schuppe, Google Tracked His Bike Ride Past a Burglarized Home. That Made Him a
Suspect., NBC NEWS (Mar. 7, 2020, 3:22 AM PST), https://perma.cc/84NC-K8QQ.
63. Id.
64. Id.
65. Id.
66. Id.
67. Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota put it
colorfully, telling reporters: “When you sit down and think about it, it makes you
want to destroy all your devices” and “move to a cabin in Montana.” Thomas Brewster,
Feds Order Google to Hand Over a Load of Innocent Americans’ Locations, FORBES (Oct. 23,
2018, 9:00 AM EDT) (quoting Sherwin), https://perma.cc/5QSU-Y74P.
68. Declaration of Sarah Rodriguez, supra note 10, ¶ 5.
69. Id.
70. Id.
71. See id. ¶¶ 5-12.
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1. Initial data dump

In the initial data dump, law enforcement requests from Google the
location information of all devices within a specified geographic zone during a
defined time frame. The following Figure illustrates one such request.
Figure 1
This was one of the geofences requested as part of a Dollar Tree robbery
investigation by the FBI in Henrico, Virginia. A significant number of residences
and commercial businesses other than the targeted Dollar Tree were within the
geofence’s geographic zone.
Source: Brewster, supra note 67.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
In response, Google discloses an anonymized list of devices, each with a

unique device ID, timestamps and coordinates, and the data source.72
Figure 2
We created this visual aid to represent what the initial data dump may have
looked like to law enforcement, with each circle representing a location ping
from a device caught within the boundaries of the geofence.
72. See Brewster, supra note 7. Notably, users’ supposedly anonymous IDs may not actually
be anonymous. A recent exposé on mobile advertising identifiers revealed that these
identifiers can be used to piece together personal information about even “masked”
users. Charlie Warzel & Stuart A. Thompson, Opinion, They Stormed the Capitol. Their
Apps Tracked Them., N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 5, 2021), https://perma.cc/2J5T-VUHL (to locate,
select “View the live page”). It is not clear whether Google uses mobile advertising
identifiers in its data returns.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
Figure 3
Time (America/Chica Maps Display

Device ID Date Latitude Longitude Source
go -05:00) Radius (m)
-1025956090 4/8/2019 11:07:00 (-05:00) 43.4214456 -88.3507382 GPS 9

-1361086191 4/8/2019 10:52:33 (-05:00) 43.4211171 -88.3508743 GPS 16
-1638700124 4/8/2019 10:54:57 (-05:00) 43.421202 -88.3503325 WiFi 58
1565184502 4/8/2019 10:55:12 (-05:00) 43.4313883 -88.35045 GPS 3
1830501424 4/8/2019 11:05:24 (-05:00) 43.4211382 -88.3500203 WiFi 50
647939400 4/8/2019 10:56:03 (-05:00) 43.421015 -88.350123 WiFi 59
This is what the initial data dump looks like on paper. This particular list was the
location history returned to law-enforcement officials investigating a bank
robbery in Allenton, Wisconsin.
Source: Brewster, supra note 7.
The precision of the latitude and longitude coordinates varies depending

on source, as demonstrated by Figure 3’s rightmost column, “Maps Display
Radius (m).”73 For GPS-derived latitude and longitude coordinates, Google
provides maps display radii (i.e., certainty of a user’s location) ranging from
three to sixteen meters. For coordinates derived via Wi-Fi, however, Google
provides radii ranging from fifty to fifty-nine meters. As shown in Figure 3,
Google was able to approximate the coordinates derived using GPS more
precisely than those derived via Wi-Fi. As a Google product manager noted,
“[I]f a user opens Google Maps and looks at the blue dot indicating Google’s
estimate of his or her location, Google’s goal is that there will be an estimated
68% chance that the user is actually within the shaded circle surrounding that
blue dot.”74
73. This is the circle that a user sees when they open up a map-based application on their
mobile device: The larger the radius of the circle, the less precise the reported location
of the user. See Find & Improve Your Location’s Accuracy, GOOGLE MAPS HELP,
https://perma.cc/C4MC-QXR7 (archived Jan. 28, 2022); Ellis, supra note 24. See
generally Krista Merry & Pete Bettinger, Smartphone GPS Accuracy Study in an Urban
Environment, 14 PLOS ONE, no. 7, July 2019, at 1, 2-3, 17 (noting that the accuracy of a
smartphone’s reported location data can vary widely depending on a number of
variables).
74. Declaration of Marlo McGriff, supra note 9, ¶ 24. Geofence warrants do not necessarily
limit the data searched to the subset of users actually present in the geofence.
Depending on how a corporation indexes data, all accounts may need to be queried to
identify records that match the warrant’s specified place and time. This is the case for
Google, which has stated that its database is structured such that it requires a search of
all users to produce the initial data dump. See Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 12-
13.
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
Accordingly, law enforcement may obtain data for users outside of the
warrant’s geographic parameters who, due to imprecision, logged a location
radius that fell within the geofence.75 The following example illustrates such a
possibility. Focusing on two devices in our geofence, Device 1 and Device 2, let
us assume (1) that Device 1 has location coordinates derived from Wi-Fi with a
radius of fifty-five meters; and (2) that Device 2 has location coordinates
derived from a cell site with a radius of 1,000 meters (a radius that can be
typical for locations based on cell sites76).
The radius of Device 1 would look like this:
Figure 4
75. See Declaration of Marlo McGriff, supra note 9, ¶ 25.

76. Ellis, supra note 24.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
The radius of Device 2 would look like this:
Figure 5
Therefore, as illustrated in particular for Device 2 (because of its large

radius), it is possible that an individual can end up in a geofence for an area in
which they were never present. This issue may not be a concern for targeted
advertisements: Accidentally serving ads to people outside of the intended
geographic area carries little harm beyond wasted effort and money.77 But the
same flaw in precision carries far more serious consequences when the
SensorVault is used for criminal liability.
77. Indeed, a Google product manager explained that Google’s ability to approximate
device location “is sufficiently precise and reliable for [the] purposes for which Google
designed LH.” Declaration of Marlo McGriff, supra note 9, ¶ 26.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
2. Selective expansion
After law-enforcement officials review the data in the initial dump, the
next step is selective expansion. Without the oversight of a magistrate judge,
law enforcement requests additional location history for certain devices in the
geofence.78 The expanded location history reaches beyond the geographic and
temporal ranges specified in the initial data dump, enabling law enforcement
to track the path of devices before and after the window in which the crime
allegedly occurred.79 This information can lead officials to discard some
devices from the investigation and focus more deeply on others (if, for
example, a device’s trajectory aligns with the known escape route of an
unidentified person of interest).80
The original warrant typically governs the time frame beyond the original
window for which law enforcement can request geographically unbounded
LH. For example, one geofence warrant told Google to “provide additional
location history outside of the predefined area for . . . relevant accounts to
determine path of travel” for up to forty-five minutes before or after the
originally enumerated time windows.81 Another geofence warrant permitted
investigators to request additional data from “30 minutes before AND 30
minutes after the initial search time periods.”82
78. See, e.g., Defendant Okello Chatrie’s Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained from a
“Geofence” General Warrant at 6, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va.
Oct. 29, 2019), 2019 WL 7660969, ECF No. 29 [hereinafter Chatrie Motion to Suppress];
see also Valentino-DeVries, supra note 3.
79. See, e.g., Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 6 (describing how investigators,
without judicial scrutiny, gained access to the unbounded location data of nine users
for thirty minutes before and after the initial geofence time period).
80. The selective-expansion step is sometimes omitted for geofence warrants that examine
multiple time frames. See, e.g., Application for a Search Warrant at 16-17, In re the
Search of: Location & Identifying Info. Maintained by Google LLC, No. 19-mj-00918
(E.D. Wis. Dec. 31, 2019), ECF No. 1 [hereinafter Dec. 31, 2019 Application]; Application
for a Search Warrant at 20-22, In re the Search of: Location Hist. Data from Google LLC
Generated from Mobile Devices, No. 19-mj-00104 (E.D. Wis. Dec. 4, 2019), ECF No. 1;
Application for a Search Warrant at 14-16, 19, In re the Search of: Location Hist. Data
from Google LLC Generated from Mobile Devices, No. 19-mj-00846 (E.D. Wis. May 1,
2019), ECF No. 1; Application for a Search Warrant at 9, 11, 13-14, In re the Search of:
Info. That Is Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, No. 18-mj-01307 (E.D. Wis.
Nov. 20, 2018), ECF No. 1. This may be because investigators are able to identify devices
of interest based on multiple appearances.
81. Motion to Quash & Suppress Evidence Under Penal Code §§ 1538.5 & 1546 at 8,
People v. Dawes, No. 19002022 (Cal. Super. Ct. June 9, 2020) [hereinafter Dawes Motion
to Quash & Suppress] (emphasis omitted) (quoting the warrant).
82. Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 6 (quoting the warrant).
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
Figure 6
A visual representation of the selective-expansion step, showing location history

outside of the originally specified time and radius for devices identified for
additional data production.
3. Unmasking
Lastly, and again without judicial oversight, law enforcement requires
Google to provide subscriber information for any device selected by
investigators.83 This unmasking divulges information including the account’s
registered name, address, start date of service, services utilized, telephone
83. See, e.g., Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 6-7; see also Valentino-DeVries,
supra note 3. Note that Minnesota police officers follow a different practice: After they
receive the initial data dump, they request another warrant from the court to retrieve
identifying information. Aaron Mak, Close Enough, SLATE (Feb. 19, 2019, 5:55 AM),
https://perma.cc/72YG-393W.
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numbers, email addresses, and means and sources of payment for services.84 In
at least one instance, law enforcement has sought personal identifying
information from all devices included in the initial data dump.85
II. Geofences and the Fourth Amendment

Geofence warrants raise a series of Fourth Amendment questions, some
more explored than others in the context of new technologies.
A. Is a Geofence a Fourth Amendment “Search”?

The threshold question is, of course, whether a geofence is a search—that
is, whether it invades a “reasonable expectation of privacy” per the test
formulated by Justice Harlan’s concurrence in Katz v. United States.86 In perhaps
the most relevant precedent addressing law enforcement’s investigatory use of
consumer data, Carpenter v. United States, the Court grappled with this question
in the context of cell-site location information used to catalog a suspect’s
whereabouts over the course of several days.87 Rejecting an application of the
third-party doctrine (given that the data was in the possession of the suspect’s
cell-service provider),88 the Court held that the government’s acquisition of
this data was a search and that the government should have obtained a
probable-cause warrant in order to access it.89 However, the Court ended its
opinion with a caveat, explaining that the decision was narrow and cabined to
its facts.90
The Carpenter caveat opened the door to a cottage industry of litigation
over whether, under Carpenter’s reasoning, the use of other technologies can
also amount to a Fourth Amendment search.91 One prominent unanswered
question in this inquiry is whether the government can avoid Carpenter’s
warrant requirement by using many small intrusions over a large population
84. See, e.g., Dec. 31, 2019 Application, supra note 80, at 17; cf. 18 U.S.C. § 2703(c)(2)
(describing the required disclosures in response to a Stored Communications Act
subpoena for subscriber information).
85. Brewster, supra note 7.
86. See 389 U.S. 347, 360-61 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring).
87. 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2212-13, 2216-17 (2018).
88. Traditionally, under the third-party doctrine, “a person has no legitimate expectation
of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.” Smith v.
Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 743-44 (1979).
89. Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2221, 2223.
90. Id. at 2220.
91. See supra note 27.
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
(as it does with geofence warrants) rather than a few large intrusions over a
small population (as it did in Carpenter).92
In addition to its unclear scope, Carpenter’s longevity is uncertain. The
recent change in Supreme Court membership (with the passing of Justice
Ginsburg and the confirmation of Justice Barrett) means that the five-vote
Carpenter majority is no longer intact. Attention has now turned to Justice
Gorsuch’s Carpenter dissent as a possible path forward.93 Justice Gorsuch’s
theory employs a positive-law approach, suggesting that a user may retain a
property interest in his or her data held by a third-party provider.94
Accordingly, an in-depth analysis of the Carpenter question—whether a
geofence warrant constitutes a Fourth Amendment search—is not the main
focus of this Note. Google’s policy of objecting to anything less than a
probable-cause warrant has seemingly pressured the government to file only
warrant applications, punting the resolution of the Carpenter question further
down the line.95 And at least one court to consider the Carpenter question in the
geofence context has noted that Carpenter is not dispositive. In a 2020 opinion
denying a geofence warrant, Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman wrote that a
citation to Carpenter was “not intended to suggest that Carpenter pre-ordains the
outcome here.”96 Instead, Judge Weisman’s opinion was “premised on much
longer established Fourth Amendment principles that a search warrant must
establish probable cause to justify the scope of the search requested, and the
type of evidence to be seized must be particularly described, not left to the
agents’ complete discretion.”97 The court thus found that the only dispositive
question was whether the geofence warrant could be properly issued under the
magistrate’s authority, bound to the probable-cause and particularity issues we
discuss in Parts IV and V below.
92. This question raises a related issue: If there is a search, when does the search occur? Is it
at the time Google queries the database, or is it when law enforcement gains access to
the data? See generally Note, supra note 24, at 2515-20 (arguing that a search occurs
“when a private company first searches through its entire database”). For the purposes
of this Note, the distinction makes no difference. Even if the search occurs when data is
returned to law enforcement, the search still cannot satisfy probable-cause and
particularity requirements. See infra Part IV.
93. See, e.g., Chris Machold, Note, Could Justice Gorsuch’s Libertarian Fourth Amendment Be the
Future of Digital Privacy? A “Moderate” Contracts Approach to Protecting Defendants After
Carpenter, 53 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1643, 1648-49 (2020) (noting that Justice Gorsuch’s
Carpenter dissent offers a promising path to a majority that can protect the digital
privacy interests of defendants).
94. See Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2267-72 (Gorsuch, J., dissenting).
95. See infra Parts III.A-.C.
96. In re the Search of: Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, as Further Described
in Attachment A, No. 20-mc-00297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *7 n.10 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020).
97. Id.
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But to briefly indicate our intuitions on the Carpenter question: We agree

with the court decisions and commentators arguing that Carpenter’s holding
extends beyond its factual boundaries.98 And we believe that Carpenter extends
to geofence technology. Whether a geofence request is viewed as a search of
many individuals, a search of many individual devices, or a search of many
homes, a geofence violates the reasonable expectation of privacy of each user
swept up in its bounds. It is near axiomatic to say that users today have, or
should have, a reasonable expectation of privacy in their sensitive location
data. Location data is qualitatively different than other kinds of data: It is
precise and revealing,99 and it is in many ways the currency of the modern era.
Some companies compete by limiting third-party access to location data;
others use dubious means to mine it.100 And cell-site location information—the
kind of data that the Carpenter Court found precise enough to warrant Fourth
Amendment protection—is the least precise form of location input.101
Any argument that a geofence search is less privacy invasive because it
gathers data only in a short time window is misguided. Mere minutes of the
SensorVault’s pinpointed LH can be incredibly revealing.102 In fact, this is
often the precise reason that law-enforcement officials seek LH: As a
Minnesota deputy police chief admitted, SensorVault’s constant, precise
tracking “shows the whole pattern of life,” a “game changer for law
enforcement.”103 And even a brief snapshot can expose highly sensitive
information—think a visit to “the psychiatrist, the plastic surgeon, the
abortion clinic, the AIDS treatment center, the strip club, the criminal defense
attorney, the by-the-hour-motel, the union meeting, the mosque, synagogue or
church, [or] the gay bar,”104 or a location other than home during a COVID-19
shelter-in-place order.
98. See, e.g., State v. Sylvestre, 254 So. 3d 986, 991-92 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2018) (holding that
Carpenter extends to cell-site simulator location data); Freiwald & Smith, supra note 27,
at 227-31.
99. See Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2212 (noting that “modern cell phones generate increasingly
vast amounts of increasingly precise” cell-site location information).
100. See, e.g., Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer, Michael H. Keller & Aaron
Krolick, Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret,
N.Y. TIMES (Dec. 10, 2018), https://perma.cc/R8QW-XWCF (to locate, select “View the
live page”); Chaim Gartenberg, Why Apple’s New Privacy Feature Is Such a Big Deal,
VERGE (Apr. 27, 2021, 10:30 AM EDT), https://perma.cc/H8LT-24GC; Brian X. Chen,
To Be Tracked or Not ? Apple Is Now Giving Us the Choice, N.Y. TIMES (updated Sept. 29,
2021), https://perma.cc/PJN5-RB6N.
101. Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2220; Ellis, supra note 24.
102. See supra Part I.A.
103. Valentino-DeVries, supra note 3 (quoting Brooklyn Park Deputy Police Chief Mark
Bruley).
104. United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400, 415 (2012) (Sotomayor, J., concurring) (quoting
People v. Weaver, 909 N.E.2d 1195, 1199 (N.Y. 2009)).
408
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
There are also real doubts as to whether anonymization actually protects

the privacy of users whose data is revealed in a geofence. As researchers have
repeatedly proven, cross-referencing datasets can reveal the identifying
information of nearly every “anonymized” user.105 There are many
opportunities to cross-reference an anonymized data dump received from
Google, invading the privacy of all users caught up in the geofence.
Regarding an application of the third-party doctrine, there is real doubt as
to whether users voluntarily share their location data with Google.106 As
detailed above, even sophisticated Google employees struggle to understand
how, if at all, they can turn off LH collection.107 And even if it is theoretically
possible to stop Google’s location tracking, the briefing for United States v.
Chatrie has documented the lack of voluntariness of the initial consent:
Following the standard setup of an Android phone like the one used by Mr.
Chatrie, a user encounters a pop-up screen . . . when opening the Google Maps
application for the first time. It says, “Get the most from Google Maps” and then it
gives the user two options: “YES I’M IN” or “SKIP.” There is also a statement that
reads “Google needs to periodically store your location to improve route
recommendations, search suggestions, and more” and a button to “LEARN
MORE.” The pop-up does not use the phase [sic] “Location History,” but clicking
on “YES I’M IN” enables the function. Clicking on “LEARN MORE” takes the user
to a webpage with Google’s complete Privacy Policy and Terms of Service; it does
not direct the user to any specific language concerning location data or Location
History specifically.
In fact, Google’s Terms of Service do not mention Location History at all.
And Google’s Privacy Policy, which is 27 pages long, mentions Location History
only twice. In the first instance, it says, in full: “You can also turn on Location
History if you want to create a private map of where you go with your signed-in
devices.” If anything, the phrase “private map” is misleading and suggests that
Google does not have access to the data. In the second instance, the policy says, in
full: “Decide what types of activity you’d like saved in your account. For example,
you can turn on Location History if you want traffic predictions for your daily
commute, or you can save your YouTube Watch History to get better video
suggestions.” Of course, “traffic predictions” do not begin to suggest that Google
will keep a 24/7 “journal” of a user’s whereabouts. But even if it did, a user would
have no way of knowing that the pop-up “opt-in” screen relates to the Location
History feature.
105. The inability of users to stop sharing location data with cell-service providers helped
motivate the holding in Carpenter. See Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2220 (“[A] cell phone logs a
cell-site record by dint of its operation, without any affirmative act on the part of the
user beyond powering up. . . . Apart from disconnecting the phone from the network,
there is no way to avoid leaving behind a trail of location data.”).
106. Warzel & Thompson, supra note 72; Gina Kolata, Your Data Were “Anonymized”? These
Scientists Can Still Identify You, N.Y. TIMES (July 23, 2019), https://perma.cc/73J2-PXUQ.
409
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The pop-up does not reference “Location History” by name. As a result, a

typical user would not know to scour Google’s policies for references to Location
History, much less understand the implications of the choice Google is asking
them to make. In short, it is strikingly easy for a user to “opt-in” to Location
History without ever being aware of doing so.108
Another Chatrie defense brief details the similarly confusing maze a user must
navigate to pause and delete LH data.109
Even if the Supreme Court adopts Justice Gorsuch’s theory that a provider
may serve as a bailee of data,110 we believe that the Fourth Amendment still
applies to geofence searches. Users likely have a property interest in their
SensorVault information, and those individuals who knowingly opt into LH
collection affirmatively designate Google as a bailee.
B. Probable Cause, Particularity, and Warrant Execution

Because of Google’s policies and the uncertainty surrounding Carpenter,111
geofence issues have primarily been situated in less explored Fourth
Amendment questions: (1) when a search warrant is properly issued per the
requirements of probable cause and particularity; and (2) how a warrant is
properly executed. A brief primer on the relevant case law: A valid search
warrant can only issue upon a showing of probable cause to the issuing neutral
magistrate.112 In rare circumstances—primarily in administrative or
regulatory searches, where a public need and the lack of an ordinary criminal
investigation justify an intrusion—investigative techniques are subjected to a
relaxed probable-cause requirement.113
The Fourth Amendment also instructs that no warrants shall issue except
those “particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized.”114 The Supreme Court has explained that this requirement
“makes general searches under [warrants] impossible and prevents the seizure
108. Defendant Okello Chatrie’s Supplemental Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained from
a “Geofence” General Warrant at 15-17, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D.
Va. May 22, 2020), 2020 WL 4551093, ECF No. 104 [hereinafter Chatrie Supplemental
Motion to Suppress] (footnotes omitted) (citations omitted).
109. Chatrie Post-hearing Brief, supra note 20, at 14-15.
110. See Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. at 2268-69 (Gorsuch, J., dissenting); supra notes 93-94 and
accompanying text.
112. See U.S. CONST. amend. IV; Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 454-55 (1971),
overruled in part on other grounds by Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128 (1990); Johnson v.
United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-15 (1948).
113. See infra Part IV.A.3.
114. U.S. CONST. amend. IV.
410
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
of one thing under a warrant describing another.”115 The particularity

requirement also limits the discretion of an officer executing a warrant and
“determines the permissible intensity” and scope of the search.116 For example,
a search warrant describing an entire apartment building will usually be held
invalid without a probable-cause showing as to all the units in the building.117
Similarly, a warrant authorizing the search of a specified area and “any and all
persons found therein” is likely defective if it does not establish that
(1) someone present during the warrant execution is likely involved in the
criminal activity; and (2) the individual likely has evidence of the crime on his
or her person.118 And once the original warrant is executed, the place cannot
be searched a second time unless a second warrant is obtained from the court,
coupled with an affidavit detailing why there is probable cause to search again
notwithstanding the first warrant.119
III. How Courts Are Handling Geofence Warrants

Amid a lack of binding state and federal jurisprudence, magistrate judges
in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the U.S.
District Court for the District of Kansas have collectively produced five
opinions on geofence warrants. Three of the Illinois opinions reject geofence-
warrant applications but leave open the possibility of a constitutionally
permissible geofence request. Similarly, the Kansas opinion rejects a geofence-
warrant application based on its lack of probable cause and particularity
without categorically ruling geofence warrants unconstitutional. The fourth
Illinois opinion approves a geofence-warrant application.
The first geofence-warrant challenge before an Article III federal judge is
underway in United States v. Chatrie, with the issue briefed and argument
pending at the time of writing.120 Similarly, a state court opinion examining
115. Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196 (1927).

116. 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, JEROLD H. ISRAEL, NANCY J. KING & ORIN S. KERR, CRIMINAL
PROCEDURE § 3.4(f) (West 2021).
117. Id. § 3.4(e).
118. Id. (collecting cases).
119. Id. § 3.4(j); see United States v. Baldyga, 233 F.3d 674, 682-83 (1st Cir. 2000).
120. See Defendant’s Response to the Government’s Supplemental Memorandum in
Opposition to Defendant’s Discovery of SensorVault Data at 12, United States v.
Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Feb. 25, 2020), ECF No. 92 (“The Court has
recognized that this is ‘a case of first impression . . . .’ ” (quoting Complete Transcript of
Discovery Motion Before the Honorable M. Hannah Lauck at 179, United States v.
Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Jan. 30, 2020), ECF No. 81)); Andrea Vittorio, Robbery
Poses Legal Test for Police Use of Google Location Data, BLOOMBERG L. (Sept. 14, 2021,
2:01 AM), https://perma.cc/Z38W-F8YB (noting that Chatrie “is considered the first
federal example of a criminal defendant challenging the use of a [geofence] data as
footnote continued on next page
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the constitutionality of geofence warrants could emerge from a challenge

currently underway in California’s San Francisco County Superior Court in
People v. Dawes.121
This Part walks through the Northern District of Illinois and District of
Kansas cases and examines both Chatrie and Dawes. It then concludes with
preliminary takeaways from the nascent geofence litigation.
A. Northern District of Illinois Magistrate Opinions

Northern District of Illinois magistrate judges have taken the lead in
considering the constitutional questions surrounding geofence warrants. They
have done so in four opinions across two investigations. In the first
investigation, regarding the theft and sale of pharmaceuticals, law enforcement
requested a geofence warrant three separate times.122 Magistrate judges denied
all three requests.123
A second investigation, regarding a series of arsons, involved one
geofence-warrant request and yielded an unsealed opinion granting the
warrant.124 This opinion, while far from the first grant of a geofence warrant,
represents the first published opinion approving a geofence warrant and
asserting the warrant’s constitutionality.125
In the first investigation, the government sought a geofence warrant to
investigate “the theft and resale of certain pharmaceuticals.”126 The
government requested three specific geofences, all for forty-five-minute
periods, across three different days.127 The first covered a 100-meter radius
evidence in his indictment”); Sobel, supra note 24 (identifying Chatrie as “the first
known federal Fourth Amendment challenge against a geofence warrant in a federal
district court”).
121. See Dawes Motion to Quash & Suppress, supra note 81, at 1-2. One of the authors of this
Note was an author of the motion to quash and suppress in Dawes.
122. In re the Search of: Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, 481 F. Supp. 3d 730,
732-33 (N.D. Ill. 2020).
123. Id. at 732-33, 757; see also Sealed Memorandum Opinion & Order at 1, 25, In re the
Search of: Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, as Further Described in
Attachment A, No. 20-mc-00392 (N.D. Ill. July 24, 2020), ECF No. 5; In re the Search of:
Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, as Further Described in Attachment A,
No. 20-mc-00297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *1 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020), ECF No. 4.
124. In re the Search Warrant Application for Geofence Location Data Stored at Google
Concerning an Arson Investigation, 497 F. Supp. 3d 345, 349, 351 (N.D. Ill. 2020).
125. See In re the Search, 481 F. Supp. 3d at 748 (“The Court is not aware of any federal
decision addressing [probable-cause and particularity] issues with respect to a geofence
warrant, and the Court has reason to believe that geofence warrants are facing their
first round of judicial scrutiny.”).
126. In re the Search, 2020 WL 5491763, at *1.
127. Id.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
(over 7.7 acres of land) during the afternoon in “a densely populated” area
containing “restaurants, various commercial establishments, and at least one
large residential complex.”128 The second and third, both of which also covered
100-meter radii during the afternoon, included “medical offices and other
single and multi-floor commercial establishments that are likely to have
multiple patrons.”129
1. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: first denial

The first warrant application requested only the initial data dump and
unmasking steps.130 Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman’s opinion roundly
rejected the government’s application. Judge Weisman indicated his “only
point of agreement” with the government’s argument was probable cause for
the suspect: “There is probable cause to believe that among all the other data
this warrant application seeks from Google, there is a likelihood that the
suspect’s phone data would be included.”131 But the warrant, he wrote, “suffers
from two obvious constitutional infirmities.”132 “First, the scope of the search
is overbroad, and second, the items to be seized are not particularly
described.”133
Judge Weisman explained that it “strains credibility” in a probable-cause
inquiry to assert that individuals within the entire geofence bore witness to the
illegal pharmaceutical transaction, which involved receipt indoors of a mailed
package.134 Witnessing such an act, he colorfully speculated, would have
required the individuals to “possess extremely keen eyesight and perhaps x-ray
vision to see through . . . many walls.”135 Judge Weisman also noted that “the
majority of the area sought encompasses structures and businesses that would
necessarily have cell phone users who are not involved in [the underlying]
offenses.”136
In explaining why the government’s request was not narrowly tailored,
the opinion noted that “the geographic scope of this request [is] a congested
urban area encompassing individuals’ residences, businesses, and healthcare
providers,” meaning that the “vast majority of cellular telephones likely to be
128. Id. at *1, *3.

129. Id. at *1.
130. See id.; supra Part I.B.
131. In re the Search, 2020 WL 5491763, at *4.
132. Id. at *3.
133. Id.
134. Id. at *5 & n.6.
135. Id.
136. Id. at *3.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
identified in this geofence will have nothing whatsoever to do with the

offenses under investigation.”137 Judge Weisman rejected the government’s
assertion that the warrant’s multistep process would protect people’s privacy,
finding that “the warrant does not limit agents to only seeking identifying
information as to the ‘five phones located closest to the center point of the
geofence,’ or some similar objective measure of particularity.”138
2. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: second denial

After the denial by Judge Weisman, the government submitted two
additional warrant applications, both of which were denied.
In its second application, the government added a request that the areas to
be searched include “the location history for such devices that ‘could have been
(as indicated by margin of error, i.e. “maps display radius”) located within’ the
geographical area of the geofences . . . within the time and date parameters of
the geofences.”139 The court explained that the “purpose of including this
‘margin of error’ . . . appears to be directed at ensuring that the proposed
warrant captures the location histories for Google-connected devices within
the margin of error, i.e., to minimize the possibility that the geofences would
miss or overlook a device that may have been inside” the relevant locations.140
Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes objected to this inclusion, noting that “even a
small-scale expansion of the boundaries” of the geofences in question would
increase “the chances that the information of uninvolved users would fall
within the reach of the government at its discretion.”141
The government’s second application also narrowed the geographic scope
of the three proposed geofences, keeping the searches closer to the two physical
locations at issue.142 Judge Fuentes found that the narrowing of the geofence
boundaries did not “solve the constitutional problem,” however, because “the
Court still has no idea how many . . . devices and their users will be identified
under the warrant’s authority.”143 In other words, “the information of an
undetermined number of uninvolved persons is authorized to be seized.”144
137. Id. at *5 (footnote omitted).

138. Id. at *5-6.
139. Sealed Memorandum Opinion & Order, supra note 123, at 15 (quoting the application);
see supra notes 73-75 and accompanying text.
140. Sealed Memorandum Opinion & Order, supra note 123, at 16.
141. Id. at 16-17.
142. Id. at 11-12, 14-15.
143. Id. at 22.
144. Id. The government also argued that a stay-at-home order reduced the number of
innocent people at one of the geofence locations, but the court responded that it “still
has no way of knowing how many Google-connected devices traversed the busy urban
414
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
3. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: third denial

In the government’s third geofence application, the requested geographic
and temporal scope remained unchanged from the second application.145
Although the third application eliminated the unmasking step requested in the
initial warrant, the government subsequently clarified that it “retain[ed] the
power to obtain by subpoena the identifying subscriber information for any of
the device IDs on the anonymized list.”146 The government also “limit[ed] the
‘anonymized’ information [sought] to that which ‘identifies individuals who
committed or witnessed the offense,’” yet it provided “[n]o further
methodology or protocol” explaining “how Google would know which of the
sought-after anonymized information identifies suspects or witnesses.”147
According to Judge Fuentes, elimination of the unmasking step neither
altered the analysis nor cured any constitutional infirmity.148 The
government’s ability to obtain personal information from Google’s list via
subpoena, he reasoned, implicated “the principle that the government may not
accomplish indirectly what it may not do directly.”149 Judge Fuentes also held
that a “too-vague, eight-word caveat that the information is limited to that
which ‘identifies the individuals who committed or witnessed the [offense]’”
could not cure the application’s constitutional infirmity.150 More specific
protocols for Google to determine which devices belonged to relevant persons,
he wrote, were necessary.151 Judge Fuentes reiterated that the proposed
warrant’s “harness[ing of] geofence technology to cause the disclosure of the
identities of various persons” meant that “the government must satisfy
probable cause as to those persons,” which it had still failed to do.152
area of [that geofence], and to assume the number of persons was reduced by the stay-
at-home order based on the statistics the government presented would be pure
speculation.” Id. at 23.
732-33 (N.D. Ill. 2020) (stating that the three forty-five-minute geofences contained in
the third application were unchanged in geographic scope from the second
application).
146. Id. at 733.
147. Id. (quoting the application).
148. Id. at 749.
149. Id.
150. Id. at 750 (quoting the application).
151. See id.
152. Id. at 750-51.
415
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
4. Arson investigation
In the second investigation that produced an unsealed federal magistrate’s
opinion, the government presented a geofence warrant application in
connection with “a series of approximately 10 arsons in the Chicago area.”153
Law enforcement believed that the fires, most of which burned vehicles, were
connected, and that the geofences would “contain evidence pertaining to the
identity of the arson suspects and their co-conspirators.”154 The government
requested six geofences, four located in commercial lots where the vehicle fires
had occurred and two along areas of roadway where the unknown arsonists
were alleged to have traveled.155 Each spanned between fifteen and thirty-
seven minutes in length during early morning hours.156 All but one covered
less than a city block, with the fourth proposed geofence covering an elongated
roadway area “approximately the length of 1.25 city blocks.”157 Similar to the
first investigation, the second investigation’s warrant application requested a
two-step execution: the initial data dump followed by unmasking.158
Magistrate Judge Sunil Harjani approved the application, explaining that,
“[o]nce novel,” geofence warrants are “now more frequent in criminal
investigations” and finding that the application “satisfies the probable cause
and particularity requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”159 Judge Harjani
held that there was “probable cause that evidence of the crime will be located at
Google because location data on cell phones at the scene of the arson, as well as
the surrounding streets, can provide evidence on the identity of the
perpetrators and witnesses to the crime.”160 Based on the government’s
assertions that (1) the alleged arsonists likely “use[d] cell phones to plan and
commit criminal offenses”; and (2) “there was a reasonable probability that a
cell phone, regardless of its make, is interfacing in some manner with a Google
application, service, or platform,” the court concluded that “there is a fair
probability that location data at Google will contain evidence of the arson
crime, namely the identities of perpetrators and witnesses to the crime.”161
The court also held that the geofences were sufficiently limited in scope:
They were “specific to the time of the arson incidents only” and “narrowly
153. In re the Search Warrant Application for Geofence Location Data Stored at Google
Concerning an Arson Investigation, 497 F. Supp. 3d 345, 351 (N.D. Ill. 2020).
154. Id.
155. Id. at 351-53.
156. Id.
157. Id.
158. See id. at 353; supra note 130 and accompanying text.
159. In re the Search Warrant Application, 497 F. Supp. 3d at 349.
160. Id. at 355.
161. Id. at 356.
416
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
crafted to ensure that location data, with a fair probability, will capture
evidence of the crime only.”162 The court noted that the warrant request was
appropriately narrow because the buildings and streets contained in the
geofences were unlikely to be occupied during the early-morning times
requested.163 The court also explained that a margin of error for location-
history data, the “exact scope” of which “is unknown,” did not render the
warrant unconstitutional.164 In the court’s eyes, “the fact that warrants for
location data have margins of error does not invalidate them—only
reasonableness is required, not surgical precision.”165 Because the margin of
error was “reasonable given the nature of the evidence being sought and what
is possible with the technology at issue,” the court found that the warrant met
the particularity requirement.166
B. District of Kansas Magistrate Opinion

In June 2021, Magistrate Judge Angel Mitchell of the U.S. Court for the
District of Kansas denied a federal geofence-warrant application on Fourth
Amendment grounds.167 The opinion did not provide much detail regarding
the nature of the geofence sought, stating only that the requested data would
have covered an area surrounding “a sizeable business establishment” during a
one-hour period.168 Judge Mitchell paid significant attention to the Northern
District of Illinois opinions surveyed in Part III.A above.169 Guided by the
analysis in those cases, Judge Mitchell held that the submitted application and
affidavit were “not sufficiently specific or narrowly tailored to establish
probable cause or particularity.”170
Judge Mitchell’s opinion emphasized that probable cause relates to both
(1) whether a crime has been committed; and (2) whether evidence of the crime
will be located at the place to be searched.171 In surveying the evidence, Judge
Mitchell concluded there was “probable cause that a crime was committed at
162. Id. at 357.

163. Id. at 358.
164. Id. at 360-61.
165. Id. at 361.
166. Id.
167. In re the Search of Info. That Is Stored at the Premises Controlled by Google, LLC,
No. 21-mj-05064, 2021 WL 2401925, at *1 (D. Kan. June 4, 2021).
168. Id. at *2; see also id. at *4 (noting that the geofence boundary “encompasses two public
streets,” that “the subject building contains another business,” and that “the area just
outside of the perimeter . . . includes residences and other businesses”).
169. See id. at *1-4.
170. Id. at *1.
171. Id. at *2.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
the [geofence location] during the relevant one-hour time period.”172 She found
that the government had failed, however, to “establish probable cause that
evidence of the crime will be located at the place searched—that is, Google’s
records showing the location data of cell phone users within the geofence
boundaries.”173 In her judgment, Google’s stored location data “would
undoubtedly show” where certain devices were located at a given point in
time.174 But the government’s statements were “too vague and generic to
establish a fair probability—or any probability—that the identity of the
perpetrator or witnesses would be encompassed within the search.”175 Even if
the court assumed that most individuals, including those committing crimes,
used mobile devices, the government’s affidavit still failed to establish “a fair
probability that any pertinent individual would have been using a device that
feeds into Google’s location-tracking technology.”176 Judge Mitchell contrasted
the government’s conclusory statements about phones linked to Google’s
location-tracking services with the more detailed explanations offered by the
government in the Northern District of Illinois warrant applications.177
Finally, with regard to probable cause, Judge Mitchell found fault with the
application’s failure to anticipate the number of individuals likely to be
included within the geofence.178 In her view, the probable-cause inquiry is one
of relative scale, in which a large amount of information on innocent
individuals “lessens the likelihood that the data would reveal a criminal
suspect’s identity, thereby weakening the showing of probable cause.”179
The opinion similarly emphasized a proportionality requirement for
particularity,180 with the court writing that “[t]he particularity requirement is
more stringent if the privacy interest is greater.”181 The court found that the
government’s application was “missing key information to determine whether
the proposed warrant is sufficiently particularized”: The government did not
address the public streets and second business contained within the geofence,
nor did it “explain the extent to which the geofence, combined with the margin
of error, is likely to capture uninvolved individuals from . . . surrounding
172. Id.
173. Id.
174. Id.
175. Id. at *3.
176. Id.
177. Id.
178. Id. Judge Mitchell noted that this failure “also goes to the particularity requirement,
which is intertwined with probable cause.” Id.
179. Id.
180. Id. (citing Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 84 (1987)).
181. Id. (citing Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41, 56 (1967)).
418
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
properties.”182 Based on these shortcomings, the court held that the

government failed to meet its particularity burden.183 The opinion also
questioned why the government asked for a whole hour of data, especially
given that this period was longer than any period requested in the Northern
District of Illinois cases.184 Although the government’s affidavit mentioned
three specific times that the suspect was shown on video surveillance, “[t]he
proposed geofence’s temporal scope ranges from just before the second [video]
sighting to approximately 10 minutes after the suspect fled the scene.”185 The
government’s failure to explain its timing request in relation to these facts,
along with the geofence’s broad geographic boundaries, ultimately rendered
the request insufficiently particular.186
The court denied the government’s application without prejudice, and it
did not foreclose “the possibility that the government may be able to
adequately demonstrate probable cause to support the warrant and articulate
that the proposed geofence is sufficiently particular.”187 But the court firmly
stated its demands and the underlying policy considerations, noting that it is
“not enough to submit an affidavit stating that probable cause exists for a
geofence warrant because, given broad cell phone usage, it is likely the
criminal suspect had a cell phone.”188 “If this were the standard, a geofence
warrant could issue in almost any criminal investigation where a suspect is
unidentified.”189
C. Ongoing State and Federal Litigation

The magistrate opinions discussed in the previous Subparts all emerged
from ex parte proceedings without a defendant. The first geofence-warrant
challenges brought by criminal defendants have emerged in the past year. One
such challenge is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia;
another is in the San Francisco County Superior Court, a California trial-level
state court. In United States v. Chatrie, a federal defendant is challenging a
geofence warrant that allegedly identified him as an armed bank robber.190 The
182. Id. at *4.

183. Id.
184. Id.
185. Id.
186. Id.
187. Id.
188. Id.
189. Id.
190. Indictment at 1-2, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Sept. 17, 2019),
2019 WL 7660960, ECF No. 1; Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 1.
419
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
geofence warrant covered a mixed residential–commercial area alongside a

busy regional highway.191 In addition to the bank that was robbed, the
geofence encompassed the entirety of a megachurch housed inside of a
converted Costco superstore.192 Just outside of the geofenced region is a hotel
with sixty-eight guest rooms, the occupants of which would have been
included in the Google returns if their maps display radii extended beyond a
few yards.193 The area covered by the geofence was “78,000 square meters, or
about 17 acres,” but with the approximate margin of error added, “the effective
range was 470,000 square meters, or about 116 acres.”194
The execution of the Chatrie warrant followed the three-step process
described in Part I.B above.195 After the initial data dump, law enforcement
repeatedly sought expanded location history “for one hour on either side of the
robbery . . . without geographic restriction” for all of the devices that Google
identified.196 Recognizing the overbreadth of this request, “Google did not
comply until investigators identified a subset of nine users for further
scrutiny.”197 Law enforcement then narrowed the list and requested that
Google unmask the owners of three devices.198
After the defendant sought to suppress the evidence obtained from the
geofence warrant, Google filed an amicus curiae brief in support of neither
party.199 The amicus brief revealed previously unknown information about
Google’s use of LH (location history) and defended the corporation’s position
that law enforcement must obtain a warrant supported by probable cause in
order to access LH records.200 Google did not take a position on the validity of
the warrant at issue.201
191. Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 5-6.

192. Id. at 6; Jim McConnell, A Church Is Born Again Inside an Old Costco, CHESTERFIELD
OBSERVER (Feb. 15, 2017), https://perma.cc/V4GX-ZU2B.
193. Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 6; Hampton Inn Richmond -Southwest -Hull
Street, HAMPTON, https://perma.cc/43BQ-FGLG (archived Oct. 23, 2021); see Affidavit &
Search Warrant at 5, United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Dec. 18, 2019),
ECF No. 54-1.
194. Chatrie Supplemental Motion to Suppress, supra note 108, at 8-9.
195. Id. at 1-2.
196. Id. at 2.
197. Id.
198. Id.
199. See id.; Motion for Leave to File Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of Neither Party at 1,
United States v. Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Dec. 20, 2019), ECF No. 59; Google
Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 1-2.
200. See Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 2, 5-14.
201. Id. at 2.
420
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In Chatrie, the probable-cause statement for the geofence warrant

emphasized that the unidentified bank robber appeared to use a cell phone
prior to the robbery.202 Based on this crime-specific information and generic
recitations regarding cell phone use and Google’s LH collection, the
Chesterfield Circuit Court approved the warrant.203
In the San Francisco County Superior Court, the criminal defendant in
People v. Dawes is similarly challenging a geofence warrant that led to his
alleged identification as one of four suspects in a home burglary.204 Before a
San Francisco magistrate, officials in Dawes presented a statement of probable
cause that included even less detail than the Chatrie affidavit.205 Law
enforcement did not even indicate that a cell phone was used during the
crime.206 The investigating officer instead asserted, using boilerplate language,
that “[b]ased on my training, experience and consulting with other
investigators, I know that subjects who commit crimes, including residential
burglaries, often uses [sic] their cell phones as a means of communication
during the commission of the crime.”207 The statement then summarized how
cell phones collect users’ LH data for storage on Google’s servers.208 While
litigants await the district court’s ruling in Chatrie and the evidentiary hearing
in Dawes, the law governing geofences remains unsettled.
D. Preliminary Takeaways from the Early Litigation

Early litigation surrounding geofence warrants has revealed emerging
judicial views, government attitudes toward geofences, and potential
arguments for defendants. For example, the government has shown that it is
willing to narrow requests or forgo selective expansion and unmasking when
pressured by Google or magistrate judges.209
Although it is early to draw conclusions from five magistrate opinions
across two federal districts, we briefly note emerging areas of agreement and
disagreement. None of the magistrate judges in the Northern District of Illinois
or the District of Kansas held that geofences were categorically
202. Affidavit & Search Warrant, supra note 193, at 6.

203. See id. at 6-8.
204. Dawes Motion to Quash & Suppress, supra note 81, at 1-2, 6-8.
205. Statement of Probable Cause at 10-11, People v. Dawes, No. 19002022 (Cal. Super. Ct.
Dec. 4, 2018) (on file with authors). By our calculation, the geofence in Dawes covered
roughly 14,000 square feet. See id. at 11.
206. See id. at 8-10.
207. Id. at 10.
208. Id.
209. See supra Parts III.A.2-.3; see also supra notes 196-97 and accompanying text.
421
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
unconstitutional.210 Rather, the magistrates differed as to when and how a

geofence can conform to the constitutional requirements of a warrant.211 A
large part of this disagreement concerned whether probable cause must be
shown for each device searched or merely for Google’s SensorVault as a
whole.212
Views regarding geofence issues will continue to diverge as the above cases
progress—and as new ones arise. We turn now to how Supreme Court
precedent on probable-cause and particularity requirements might apply to
geofence warrants.
IV. Constitutionality of the Initial Data Dump

Our constitutional analysis begins with an evaluation of the first step of
geofence-warrant execution: the initial data dump. This Part shows that the
government faces difficulty in satisfying probable-cause and particularity
requirements at this step because it generally lacks specific knowledge about
the crime when it applies for a geofence warrant. We first consider probable
cause for geofence warrants in the context of the Supreme Court’s case law
regarding checkpoints, area warrants, and searches of people near a crime
scene. We then discuss particularity, first examining geofences that include
multi-occupancy buildings and then suggesting particularized search protocols
for geofence warrants.
A. Probable Cause
When applying for geofence warrants, law enforcement’s support for
probable cause often resembles that proffered in the Northern District of
Illinois arson investigation, as described in Part III.A.4 above. An unknown
suspect committed a crime at a certain location at a certain time; investigators
assumed—with no proof—that the perpetrator had a smartphone with him
210. See supra Parts III.A-.B.

211. See supra Parts III.A-.B.
212. Compare In re the Search of: Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, 481 F. Supp.
3d 730, 750-51 (N.D. Ill. 2020) (noting that where a geofence warrant “cause[s] the
disclosure of the identities of various persons,” the government “must satisfy probable
cause as to [each of] those persons”), with In re the Search Warrant Application for
Geofence Location Data Stored at Google Concerning an Arson Investigation, 497 F.
Supp. 3d 345, 355 (N.D. Ill. 2020) (examining whether there is “probable cause that
evidence of the crime will be located at Google”), and In re the Search of Info. That Is
Stored at the Premises Controlled by Google, LLC, No. 21-mj-05064, 2021 WL 2401925,
at *2 (D. Kan. June 4, 2021) (stating that the government must “establish probable cause
that evidence of the crime will be located at the place searched—that is, Google’s
records”). We address this topic further in Part IV.A below.
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during the offense; and investigators noted “a reasonable probability that a cell
phone, regardless of its make, is interfacing in some manner with a Google
application, service, or platform.”213
Geofence warrants are not the first instance of the government selecting a
geographic region and searching everything within it. Sometimes, law
enforcement has selected an area and searched every person within it.214 At
other times, it has selected an area and searched every home within it.215 Now,
law enforcement selects an area and searches every device within it. Fourth
Amendment jurisprudence has long grappled with the probable-cause and
particularity requirements of these inherently broad searches.
1. Geofences as Ybarra searches

The Supreme Court has made clear that an individual’s mere presence near
a crime is insufficient to establish probable cause. In Ybarra v. Illinois, an
informant told police that he observed a bartender in possession of (and
potentially selling) heroin.216 A judge issued a warrant authorizing the search
of the tavern and the bartender.217 When officers arrived, they searched not
only the tavern but also all customers present, including Ventura Ybarra.218
The Court declared the search unconstitutional because the government’s
warrant application only alleged probable cause for the bartender and did not
assert proof “that any person found on the premises of the Aurora Tap Tavern,
aside from [bartender] ‘Greg,’ would be violating the law.”219 “Nowhere . . . did
the complaint even mention the [bar’s] patrons.”220 And Ybarra himself, the
Court found, gave police “no reason to believe that he had committed, was
committing, or was about to commit any offense under state or federal law.”221
The Court noted that “the agents knew nothing in particular about Ybarra,
except that he was present, along with several other customers, in a public
tavern at a time when the police had reason to believe that the bartender would
have heroin for sale.”222 As the Court held, “a person’s mere propinquity to . . .
213. In re the Search Warrant Application, 497 F. Supp. 3d at 356.

214. See infra Parts IV.A.1-.2.
215. See infra Part IV.A.3.
216. 444 U.S. 85, 87-88 (1979).
217. Id. at 88.
218. Id. at 88-89. Ybarra, as it turned out, was also in possession of heroin. Id. at 89.
219. Id. at 90.
220. Id.
221. Id. at 90-91.
222. Id. at 91.
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search
that person.”223
An individual Google user being searched via geofence is analogous to
Ventura Ybarra being searched at the tavern. Like the warrant application in
Ybarra, a standard geofence-warrant application alleges two things: (1) that
someone committed a crime;224 and (2) that the crime occurred in a certain
location. And like a search of all persons present at the Aurora Tap Tavern, a
geofence warrant searches all devices within the specified area.
Similar to the Ybarra warrant application, which did not “even mention”
individuals other than the bartender,225 a standard geofence-warrant
application does not mention any details about individuals other than the fact
that a suspect is likely to be present in the geofence.226 To borrow from the
Ybarra Court: The investigators know “nothing in particular about” any
individual subjected to the geofence search “except that he was present” in a
place “at a time when the police had reason to believe” that a crime occurred.227
The Court in Ybarra underscored that probable cause must be established
for each individual subject to the search. The Court’s analysis contrasts with
Magistrate Judge Harjani’s reasoning in the Northern District of Illinois arson
case discussed above.228 In granting a geofence warrant, Judge Harjani
considered whether there was a fair probability that evidence of the crime
would be found in the SensorVault, instead of asking whether there was a fair
probability that evidence of the crime would be found in each user account
searched.229 In reviewing such decisions, courts must grapple with Ybarra’s
declaration that the probable-cause requirement “cannot be undercut or
avoided by simply pointing to the fact that coincidentally there exists probable
cause to search or seize another or to search the premises where the person
may happen to be.”230
223. Id. (citing Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 62-63 (1968)); see also United States v. Di Re,
332 U.S. 581, 587 (1948) (holding that an individual does not lose constitutional
immunities from search by “mere presence in a suspected car”). This holding applies
when presence at a crime scene is a known certainty—but presence is not a certainty
with geofence returns because of the way that Google collects data. See supra notes 73-
77 and accompanying text.
224. But in the geofence case, there is not even a named suspect like “Greg” the bartender.
225. Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 90.
226. See, e.g., supra notes 202-08 and accompanying text.
227. Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 91.
228. See supra Part III.A.4.
229. See In re the Search Warrant Application for Geofence Location Data Stored at Google
Concerning an Arson Investigation, 497 F. Supp. 3d 345, 355 (N.D. Ill. 2020).
230. Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 91.
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
The analogy, of course, is imperfect. The search of a person in a bar is not

the same as the search of a device’s location history in a geofenced region.
Individuals’ privacy preferences differ. Some might feel that it is more privacy
invasive for a law enforcement to rifle through pockets or a purse than it is for
law enforcement to rifle through location data over the course of an hour.
Nevertheless, there are good reasons to think that both physical and geofence
searches fall within the same category of Fourth Amendment protection. The
search of a cell phone’s data generally requires a warrant,231 as does the search
of a home.232 Similarly, the search of cell-site location information generally
requires a warrant,233 as does the search of a bar patron’s pockets.234 All told,
the Ybarra search parallels geofence searches for purposes of Fourth
Amendment jurisprudence. And Ybarra models the analysis a court should
employ when evaluating probable cause to conduct searches of many people—
or many people’s devices.
2. Geofences as checkpoints
Geofence warrants also resemble checkpoints: Both geofences and
checkpoints delineate a geographic region and search everyone within that
region. The Supreme Court’s checkpoint doctrine is illustrated in Michigan
Department of State Police v. Sitz, in which law enforcement constructed a
checkpoint for drunk driving:
All vehicles passing through a checkpoint would be stopped and their drivers
briefly examined for signs of intoxication. In cases where a checkpoint officer
detected signs of intoxication, the motorist would be directed to a location out of
the traffic flow where an officer would check the motorist’s driver’s license and
car registration and, if warranted, conduct further sobriety tests. Should the field
tests and the officer’s observations suggest that the driver was intoxicated, an
arrest would be made.235
A geofence search is essentially a digitized version of the Sitz checkpoint.
All devices that passed through the specified region during the relevant time
window are revealed in the initial data dump, and their location history is
examined by law enforcement for signs of criminal activity. When an officer
sees suspicious location history, that individual is selected for further
investigation via the selective-expansion step.236 Should the officer’s further
observations suggest that the individual is a suspect, the geofence warrant
231. Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373, 386, 401 (2014).

232. Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 181 (1990).
233. Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2221 (2018).
234. Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 88-89, 90-91.
235. 496 U.S. 444, 447 (1990).
236. See supra Part I.B.2.
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requires Google to unmask that person and produce his or her subscriber
information.237 In other words, all individuals in the area are preliminarily
inspected and, at the officer’s discretion, searched. More broadly, law-
enforcement officials executing a geofence warrant develop probable cause to
investigate certain individuals only after they have reviewed the initial data
dump (and perhaps selective-expansion data).
The Sitz Court found the checkpoint constitutional because it “was clearly
aimed at reducing the immediate hazard posed by the presence of drunk
drivers on the highways, and there was an obvious connection between the
imperative of highway safety and the law enforcement practice at issue.”238 But
in City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, the Court held that a checkpoint was
unconstitutional because its “primary purpose . . . [was] the interdiction of
narcotics” and made clear that general-purpose checkpoints are prohibited.239
The Edmond Court declined to “suspend the usual requirement of
individualized suspicion where the police seek to employ a checkpoint
primarily for the ordinary enterprise of investigating crimes.”240 If such
checkpoints were allowed, the Court reasoned, “there would be little check on
the ability of the authorities to construct roadblocks for almost any
conceivable law enforcement purpose.”241 Under this logic, geofence warrants
used to investigate ordinary crimes (i.e., those that do not pose an immediate
hazard) seem to run afoul of Edmond and Sitz.
Illinois v. Lidster presents an apt comparison to geofence warrants, as the
case involved a criminal investigation in search of leads.242 Faced with a stale
investigation of a fatal hit-and-run, law enforcement created an “information-
seeking” checkpoint near the accident’s location.243 The checkpoint blocked a
portion of the highway so that officers could approach each vehicle, ask
passengers if they had witnessed the accident, and hand passengers a flyer
requesting assistance in identifying the vehicle and driver involved.244 The
Supreme Court upheld this checkpoint as constitutional because, unlike the
Edmond checkpoint, it was not set up primarily to detect evidence of ordinary

238. City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 39 (2000) (citing Sitz, 496 U.S. at 451).
239. Id. at 41 (“We have never approved a checkpoint program whose primary purpose was
to detect evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing.”).
240. Id. at 44.
241. Id. at 42.
242. See 540 U.S. 419, 422 (2004).
243. Id. at 422, 424.
244. Id. at 422. Respondent Robert Lidster swerved into the checkpoint and nearly collided
with it, and was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence. Id.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
criminal wrongdoing.245 In the Court’s eyes, the key distinguishing factor from
Edmond was that law enforcement in Lidster sought information from third
parties unlikely to have themselves committed the crime under
investigation.246
Like in Lidster, law enforcement has no suspect and no known witnesses
when requesting a geofence warrant. But a geofence warrant is more like the
checkpoint in Edmond than the one in Lidster. While Lidster’s checkpoint was
in furtherance of a criminal investigation, it did not aim to “determine whether
a vehicle’s occupants were committing a crime, but to ask vehicle occupants, as
members of the public, for their help in providing information about a crime
in all likelihood committed by others.”247 As the geofence warrants surveyed
above indicate, however, the government seeks geofence warrants precisely to
reveal unknown perpetrators.248 Inspection of geofence data is thus equivalent
to law enforcement stopping each individual leaving an area, demanding his or
her digital device, and checking its location history for evidence of a crime.
This is precisely what the Fourth Amendment prohibits.249
3. Geofences as area warrants

Geofences are also analogous to area warrants. One commentator defines
area warrants as “judicial warrants that specify the location and timing of a
search without specifying the persons or objects to be searched.”250 In contrast
to typical search warrants, an area warrant, such as an administrative warrant
or a suspicionless search, “generally cannot provide much detail beyond . . . an
address, a stated purpose, and general parameters for a search.”251 When an
area warrant issues, it authorizes the government to search “every person,
place, or thing in a specific location . . . based only on a showing of a
generalized government interest.”252 Such searches are not predicated on
245. Id. at 427-28.

246. Id. at 423.
247. Id.; see also id. at 428 (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (“There is a
valid and important distinction between seizing a person to determine whether she has
committed a crime and seizing a person to ask whether she has any information about
an unknown person who committed a crime a week earlier.”).
248. See supra Part II; see also, e.g., supra notes 46-48 and accompanying text.
249. See City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 37 (“A search or seizure is ordinarily
unreasonable in the absence of individualized suspicion of wrongdoing.”).
250. Christopher Lee, Comment, The Viability of Area Warrants in a Suspicionless Search
Regime, 11 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 1015, 1019 (2009).
251. Id. at 1044.
252. Eve Brensike Primus, Disentangling Administrative Searches, 111 COLUM. L. REV. 254, 263
(2011).
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
probable cause for each thing searched within the specific location,253 so they
cannot meet the usual standard required for warrants. Instead, the Supreme
Court recognizes an exception for area warrants in cases where “requiring
individualized showings of probable cause would prevent the government
from addressing important health or safety concerns,” such as the need to
conduct “[a] health or safety inspection of every home in a given area or every
business in a particular industry.”254 Because of this unique government
rationale, these warrants can be predicated on sui generis area-wide probable
cause.
The Supreme Court defined the constitutional limits of area warrants in
Camara v. Municipal Court, which concerned a municipal government’s
inspection of housing “based on its appraisal of conditions in the area as a
whole, not on its knowledge of conditions in each particular building.”255 In
Camara, the government expected that many homes subject to search would be
in compliance with housing codes.256 As a result, the government’s inspections
“would burden many law-abiding homeowners who had done nothing to
trigger any suspicion of wrongdoing.”257 Under ordinary Fourth Amendment
jurisprudence, such inspections would be prohibited. The Camara Court,
however, recognized an exception to the usual probable-cause requirement
“because the inspections are neither personal in nature nor aimed at the
discovery of evidence of crime,” meaning that “they involve a relatively
limited invasion of the urban citizen’s privacy.”258
But the Court emphasized that “the importance of the government’s
interest” in regulating health and safety and the “minimally intrusive nature of
the search” were not, by themselves, sufficient to exempt housing inspections
from the requirement of individualized suspicion.259 The Court included in its
test an exhaustion requirement, indicating that area warrants were only to be
used as a last resort 260 and explaining the “unanimous agreement among those
most familiar with this field that the only effective way to seek universal
compliance with the minimum standards required by municipal codes is
through routine periodic inspections of all structures.”261 The Court
253. Id.
254. Id. at 262-63.
255. See 387 U.S. 523, 535-36 (1967).
256. Primus, supra note 252, at 264.
257. Id.; see Camara, 387 U.S. at 532-33 (emphasizing various ways in which administrative
inspections burden each individual whose property is searched).
258. Camara, 387 U.S. at 537.
259. Primus, supra note 252, at 264.
260. See Camara, 387 U.S. at 539-40.
261. Id. at 535-36 (emphasis added).
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
emphasized that no home-inspection technique based on probable cause

“would achieve acceptable results,”262 and in the decade after Camara it struck
down “many proposed administrative searches—even minimally intrusive
ones—because alternative regimes predicated on individualized suspicion could
reasonably serve the government’s interests.”263
The Camara test thus guides the analysis of whether geofence warrants are
permissible area warrants. Instead of inspecting each home in an area based on
the probability of housing code violations, geofence warrants allow law
enforcement to inspect every digital device in an area based on the likelihood
of evidence being found on a device. Many, if not most, devices with
information returned will be unrelated to the investigation; many law-abiding
people who did nothing to trigger suspicion of wrongdoing will be burdened.
The Court in Camara made clear that such a search is only permissible in the
context of an important public health and safety issue when no other
investigative method would suffice.264 Given this analysis, it seems unlikely
that a geofence warrant, outside of a special situation or a dire exigency, could
pass the high Camara bar.
4. Takeaways
As seen through the Ybarra opinion and the other examples discussed in
the previous Subparts, the probable-cause requirement is likely the main
barrier to the constitutionality of geofence warrants. Geofence-warrant
applications in their current form assert only that individual users (1) were at
or near the scene of a crime; and (2) possessed a cell phone that sends data to
Google.265 This falls short of probable cause.
The first allegation, that a user was near the scene of the crime, clashes
with Ybarra. In order to obtain a geofence warrant, the government may have
to show—also in line with the Supreme Court’s checkpoint and area-warrant
jurisprudence—that a special need beyond general law-enforcement activity,
such as the risk of harm to public health or safety, is present.
The second allegation, that the user has a cell phone which sends data to
Google, also seems to fall short of the Ybarra hurdle. Owning an iPhone or an
Android phone is not a reason to believe that the individual “had committed,
was committing, or was about to commit any offense under state or federal
law,” and it is not “indicative of criminal conduct.”266 Rather, it is indicative of
262. See id. at 537.

263. Primus, supra note 252, at 265-66.
264. Camara, 387 U.S. at 535-40.
265. See, e.g., supra notes 160-61 and accompanying text.
266. Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 91 (1979).
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
living in the twenty-first century and having the means to afford a

smartphone.
Prior to receiving geofence-warrant data, investigators have no idea which
individuals to scrutinize. All are treated as suspects on the basis of their devices’
proximity to the crime scene. While probable cause is merely “a fair
probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular
place,”267 that place cannot be an entire geographic region. Rather, the place
must be each individual device caught in the net. The Constitution requires a
basis for suspicion of an individual’s wrongdoing, and this basis must go
beyond naming an entire population or a blanket geographic region. Indeed,
the Constitution requires that probable cause be established for every individual
whose information is ensnared in the search, and probable cause cannot be
satisfied by claiming that evidence of wrongdoing will likely appear in a
general pool of data.268 An affidavit merely showing that a crime took place in
a certain geographic region at a certain time, while apparently acceptable to
some courts, is constitutionally insufficient. And to the extent that courts have
found this rationale adequate to issue geofence warrants, we disagree.
This is not the first time courts have used erroneous probable-cause
analysis in the context of broad database searches. In a leading opinion on
tower dumps,269 United States v. James, the court held that probable cause was
met because “there was a fair probability that data from the cellular towers in
the area of the crimes,” rather than data from each cellular device in the area,
“would include cellular data related to the individual responsible for the
robberies being investigated.”270 Stephen Henderson has explained, however,
267. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 (1983).

268. See Marks v. Clarke, 102 F.3d 1012, 1029 (9th Cir. 1996) (holding that “a warrant to
search ‘all persons present’ for evidence of a crime may only be obtained when there is
reason to believe that all those present will be participants in the suspected criminal
activity,” and explaining that such a warrant is only appropriate for a locale “dedicated
exclusively to criminal activity”); Owens ex rel. Owens v. Lott, 372 F.3d 267, 276 (4th
Cir. 2004) (“[A]n ‘all persons’ warrant can pass constitutional muster if the affidavit and
information provided to the magistrate supply enough detailed information to
establish probable cause to believe that all persons on the premises at the time of the
search are involved in the criminal activity.”).
269. Tower dumps and geofences share some similarities. A tower dump occurs when law
enforcement asks a cell-service provider to produce the phone numbers of every
device connected to a certain cell tower during a certain time period, usually near the
scene of a crime when the crime was occurring. See Katie Haas, Cell Tower Dumps:
Another Surveillance Technique, Another Set of Unanswered Questions, ACLU (Mar. 27, 2014,
11:58 AM), https://perma.cc/GL7N-SBR5. The main differences between tower dumps
and geofences are (1) that the SensorVault produces more precise location data than cell
towers; and (2) that a tower-dump database search is narrower because providers can
search one cell tower only. Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 10-12, 14.
270. No. 18-cr-00216, 2019 WL 325231, at *3 (D. Minn. Jan. 25, 2019). Despite being an
unpublished district court opinion, James is a leading opinion because it is one of the
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
that focusing probable cause on the group rather than the individual “would
mean that a larger database is always to be preferred” by law enforcement,
because “by definition there will be evidence of crime in that larger set.”271 This
would lead to an “absurd” understanding of probable cause, Henderson argues:
“[A] prosecutor confident that a bank customer is committing tax fraud could
access the combined records of all customers of that bank because, somewhere
in there, she is very sure is evidence of crime.”272 Instead, Henderson asserts, it
must be the case that probable cause is required for “each person’s obtained
records” in a tower dump, “meaning here each phone number contained within
the dump.”273 Indeed, the Supreme Court in Camara explained that while “in a
criminal investigation, the police may undertake to recover specific stolen or
contraband goods . . . public interest would hardly justify a sweeping search of
an entire city conducted in the hope that these goods might be found.”274
“Consequently, a search for these goods, even with a warrant, is ‘reasonable’
only when there is ‘probable cause’ to believe that they will be uncovered in a
particular dwelling.”275
B. Issues with the Particularity Requirement

The Fourth Amendment mandates that the description within a search
warrant identify the “specific place for which there is probable cause to believe
that a crime is being committed,”276 to ensure that searches “will not take on
the character of the wide-ranging exploratory searches the Framers intended
to prohibit.”277 Even if there is probable cause to search some users, geofence
few post-Carpenter opinions to address the constitutionality of tower dumps. See Shane
Rogers, Two Years of Carpenter, COVINGTON: INSIDE PRIV. (July 7, 2020),
https://perma.cc/9A8M-CXXS. Many of our arguments in this Part also apply to
tower dumps. Individuals are swept into tower dumps for the same reason they are
swept into geofences: proximity to the scene of the crime around the time when it
occurred. But the Carpenter question is more relevant to tower-dump litigation than to
geofence litigation, as corporations sometimes supply cell-tower information to law
enforcement without a warrant. David Kravets, Cops and Feds Routinely “Dump” Cell
Towers to Track Everyone Nearby, WIRED (Dec. 9, 2013, 5:15 PM), https://perma.cc/
KX4W-EPQW.
271. Stephen E. Henderson, Response, A Rose by Any Other Name: Regulating Law Enforcement
Bulk Metadata Collection, 94 TEX. L. REV. SEE ALSO 28, 40-41 (2016).
272. Id. at 41.
273. Id.
274. Camara v. Mun. Ct., 387 U.S. 523, 535 (1967).
275. Id.
276. United States v. Hinton, 219 F.2d 324, 326 (7th Cir. 1955).
277. Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 84 (1987).
431
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
warrants—which do not target a specific user or set of users278— struggle to

achieve particularity because they do not describe a place for which there is
probable cause to search all devices present.
Imagine a housing structure for which there is an ordinary, in-person
search warrant. When a single warrant covers such an area, including more
than one living unit in a multi-occupancy structure (or multiple single-
occupancy structures), courts require “adequate probable cause for [the] search
of each place.”279 This is not an easy showing: As Wayne LaFave explains, it
generally “requires a rather special set of facts.”280 For example, “a generalized
statement that a person involved in criminality has ‘control’ of the entirety of a
multiple-occupancy structure will not suffice.”281
As noted above, geofence searches often include multi-occupancy
structures within their boundaries. Yet law enforcement has not always
adhered to the particularity standard required for such searches. Magistrate
Judge Weisman noted this defect in his rejection of the initial pharmaceutical
geofence application, writing that the government’s “inclusion of a large
apartment complex in one of its geofences raises additional concerns” because
it would allow the government to “obtain location information as to an
individual who may be in the privacy of their own residence without any
showing of probable cause related to that individual or her residence.”282 Such
information is invasive: Location data can reveal which room of a person’s
home she is in, who is in the home with her, and more.283
278. In fact, one of the most infamous national security laws, section 702 of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, see FISA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-261,
§ 101(a)(2), 122 Stat. 2436, 2438-48 (codified as amended at 50 U.S.C. § 1881a), requires
more targeting than geofences do. Under this law, the government must task a
“selector” to a provider, meaning that the government must provide an “account
identifier such as an email address or telephone number,” and then the provider must
disclose certain communications to or from that selector. U.S. DEP’T OF COM., U.S. DEP’T
OF JUST. & U.S. OFF. OF THE DIR. OF NAT’L INTEL., INFORMATION ON U.S. PRIVACY
SAFEGUARDS RELEVANT TO SCCS AND OTHER EU LEGAL BASES FOR EU–U.S. DATA
TRANSFERS AFTER SCHREMS II, at 7-8 (2020), https://perma.cc/L4NX-AQYB.
279. State v. Ferrari, 460 P.2d 244, 248 (N.M. 1969) (emphasis added).
280. 2 LAFAVE ET AL., supra note 116, § 3.4(e) n.89.
281. Id.; see United States v. Clark, 638 F.3d 89, 94-96 (2d Cir. 2011).
282. In re the Search of: Info. Stored at Premises Controlled by Google, as Further Described
in Attachment A, No. 20-mc-00297, 2020 WL 5491763, at *5 n.7 (N.D. Ill. July 8, 2020)
(citing Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 34 (2001)).
283. See supra notes 33-34 and accompanying text (detailing the precision of SensorVault
location information). In 2020, Google released reports analyzing location data to show
how COVID-19 had changed movement patterns (and whether people were complying
with stay-at-home orders). Casey Newton, Google Uses Location Data to Show Which
Places Are Complying with Stay-at-Home Orders—and Which Aren’t, VERGE (Apr. 3, 2020,
2:00 AM EDT), https://perma.cc/QAT6-JNFX. Such reports reveal the precision with
which Google chronicles users’ movements.
432
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
It is possible for law enforcement to cleverly craft a search protocol to

make it sufficiently particularized. In fact, in the third denial of the
pharmaceutical geofence application, Magistrate Judge Fuentes suggested that
while law enforcement might not have probable cause for everyone present at
each geofenced crime scene, it might have probable cause for everyone present
at all (or multiple) geofenced crime scenes.284 Law enforcement could have
requested that Google return only location information for devices that
registered LH in two or three geofences. At least one office adopted this
approach in an investigation: In August 2018, police officers in Maine asked
Google to return information only on users whose data appeared in more than
one of the requested locations.285 When crafted in this way—with returns
limited to devices recorded across multiple geofences in the case of multiple
crime scenes—geofence warrants may be sufficiently particularized.
V. Constitutionality of Selective Expansion and Unmasking

Many geofence warrants authorize a second step, selective expansion,
through which law-enforcement officials identify and seek additional
information on individual devices from the original data pool.286 Selective
expansion can include location history from outside of the geofence’s initial
location and time boundaries.287 In the subsequent, final step, law-enforcement
officials require the targeted provider (so far, primarily Google) to unmask the
identity of individuals in the data pool.288
These two steps can be interpreted as violative in several ways. Both
selective expansion and unmasking grant executive officers unconstitutional
discretion in the execution of a warrant. Furthermore, the selective-expansion
step can be viewed as allowing officers to go beyond the specified scope of the
warrant. Alternatively, the selective-expansion step can be viewed as
authorizing additional (and wholly invalid) separate searches under a single
warrant.
A. Geofences as General Warrants

By authorizing multiple steps that are entirely subject to the direction of
law enforcement, geofence warrants may grant officers unconstitutional
755-56 (N.D. Ill. 2020).
285. Brewster, supra note 67; Mak, supra note 83.
433
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
discretion in warrant execution. As the Supreme Court wrote in Marron v.

United States, “[t]he requirement that warrants shall particularly describe the
things to be seized makes general searches under them impossible.”289 “As to
what is to be taken,” the Court noted, “nothing is left to the discretion of the
officer executing the warrant.”290
In striking down the general warrant at issue in the foundational English
case Wilkes v. Wood, the Court of King’s Bench held that undue discretion was
left to the King’s officers when they were instructed to “apprehend[] the
authors, printers and publishers” of a radical newspaper.291 The warrant
allowed the officers discretion to search homes of their choosing and seize
anything they deemed relevant.292 The Wilkes court condemned the warrant
because of the “discretionary power” it gave officials in deciding where to
search and what to take.293
The U.S. Supreme Court enshrined the lessons of Wilkes and a
contemporaneous English case, Entick v. Carrington,294 in its canonical Fourth
Amendment decision, Boyd v. United States.295 The Court subsequently held that
particularity is required for electronic searches, finding in Berger v. New York
that a general wiretap granted “the officer a roving commission to ‘seize’ any
and all conversations.”296 Without “adequate judicial supervision or protective
procedures,” an electronic search lacking probable cause and particularity, “[a]s
with general warrants . . . leaves too much to the discretion of the officer
executing the order.”297
Like general warrants, geofence warrants grant discretion to the executing
law-enforcement officials. Officers can select users of their choosing and seize
(through selective expansion or unmasking) further data from those users
without judicial oversight.298 The officers do not name these individuals in
advance, nor do they provide affidavits specifying their justifications for
selecting certain individuals.299
289. 275 U.S. 192, 196 (1927).

290. Id.; see Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 345 (2009) (“[T]he central concern underlying the
Fourth Amendment . . . [is] the concern about giving police officers unbridled
discretion to rummage at will among a person’s private effects.”).
291. (1763) 98 Eng. Rep. 489, 496, 498; Lofft 1, 14, 18.
292. See id. at 498, Lofft at 18.
293. Id.
294. (1765) 95 Eng. Rep. 807; 2 Wils. K.B. 275.
295. 116 U.S. 616, 625-27 (1886).
296. 388 U.S. 41, 58-59 (1967).
297. Id. at 59-60.
298. See supra Parts I.B.2-.3.
299. Cf. United States v. Fleet Mgmt. Ltd., 521 F. Supp. 2d 436, 443-44 (E.D. Pa. 2007) (holding
that a warrant authorizing the seizure of “any and all data” from a ship’s computer was
434
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
In its Chatrie briefing, the government argued that geofence-warrant

discretion merely enabled officers to acquire less information than the
constitutional maximum.300 The government analogized its geofence warrant
to the Playpen warrant, which allowed the FBI to search the computers of
everyone who logged into Playpen, a site on the dark web for child sexual-
abuse material, for thirty days.301 In a Playpen case before the First Circuit, the
court found that the warrant was sufficiently particular and allowed law
enforcement to deploy the search “more discretely against particular users.”302
Geofence warrants, however, can be distinguished from the Playpen warrant:
The particularity requirement is more easily satisfied for seizures of
contraband.303 This was the case for the Playpen warrant, as the users who
accessed contraband on the website provided an adequate basis for probable
cause to search their devices.304 By contrast, being in the vicinity of a crime
scene is neither contraband nor sufficient to support probable cause on its
own.305
B. Selective Expansions as Increases in Scope

The selective-expansion step may also be interpreted as an increase in the
warrant’s scope without magistrate approval. Once the constitutional
requirements of probable cause and particularity are met, the descriptions in a
warrant are critical in limiting the resulting search.306 For example, under a
warrant particularized to a building’s first floor, authorities cannot search
higher floors.307 Even if the government specifies a selective-expansion
protocol, a geofence warrant still only describes the data within its original
an invalid general warrant, as it gave executing officers total discretion as to what they
would seize (quoting the warrant)).
300. See Government’s Response in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Suppression of
Evidence Obtained Pursuant to Google Geofence Warrant at 19-20, United States v.
Chatrie, No. 19-cr-00130 (E.D. Va. Nov. 19, 2019), 2019 WL 8227160, ECF No. 41
[hereinafter Chatrie Government’s Response].
301. Id.
302. United States v. Anzalone, 208 F. Supp. 3d 358, 363, 368 (D. Mass. 2016) (quoting the
warrant’s affidavit), aff ’d, 923 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2019).
303. 2 LAFAVE ET AL., supra note 116, § 3.4(f); see United States v. Jenkins, 680 F.3d 101, 106-07
(1st Cir. 2012) (holding that probable cause to believe contraband will be found in a
certain place can satisfy the particularity requirement).
304. See Anzalone, 208 F. Supp. 3d at 368; Chatrie Government’s Response, supra note 300, at
20.
305. See supra Part IV.A.1.
306. 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, SEARCH AND SEIZURE: A TREATISE ON THE FOURTH AMENDMENT
§ 4.10 (West 2021).
307. Id. § 4.10(a).
435
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
geographic coordinates and time frame. Searching data outside of those

parameters is therefore outside the scope of the warrant, like searching the
second floor of an apartment building when a search has only been authorized
on the first floor.
Issues with searches beyond the scope of a warrant have arisen frequently
in digital Fourth Amendment cases, in part because law enforcement can easily
exceed specified bounds when accessing large pools of data. For example, in
United States v. Carey, the Tenth Circuit held that a police officer searching for
evidence of drug trafficking on a computer exceeded a warrant’s scope when
he clicked through picture files looking for evidence of child sexual-abuse
material.308 The court noted that “until he opened the first JPG file,” the officer
stated “he did not suspect he would find child pornography.”309 But once he
saw the first image and developed probable cause to believe he would find
more like it, the officer could not go searching through the computer without
returning to a magistrate for another search warrant.310
As Carey illustrates, law-enforcement officers do not have probable cause
to search any location data beyond the initial data dump until they have
surveyed the data in that dump. And like in Carey, even when law-
enforcement officers have developed probable cause to believe they will find
more incriminating evidence in a certain user’s location history, they may not
be allowed to search through data outside of the original parameters (by
requesting expansion from Google) until they receive further judicial
authorization.
C. Multiple Searches
Going a step further, recent federal appellate opinions indicate that
selective expansion could be interpreted as a violation of the Fourth
Amendment maxim that several searches cannot be authorized by one
warrant. In Marron, the Supreme Court explained that the particularity
requirement “prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing
another.”311 A warrant “authorizes only one search,”312 and “if a place is to be
searched a second time the proper procedure is to obtain a second warrant
based on an affidavit explaining why there is now probable cause
notwithstanding the execution of the earlier warrant.”313
308. 172 F.3d 1268, 1272-73 (10th Cir. 1999).

309. Id. at 1273.
310. Id.
311. Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196 (1927).
312. United States v. Keszthelyi, 308 F.3d 557, 568-69 (6th Cir. 2002).
313. 2 LAFAVE ET AL., supra note 116, § 3.4(j).
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
The multiple steps of the geofence warrant may amount to several

searches of user accounts due to the underlying technology. One SensorVault
query produces the initial data dump, but once that query is complete and the
data has been turned over to law enforcement, a second query is necessary in
order to produce the selective-expansion data that law enforcement has
requested.314
While the Supreme Court has not weighed in on the issue, some courts
have held that each query of an electronic database is a search, and multiple
queries amount to multiple searches. The Second Circuit recently explained
that, in the context of a database containing foreign-intelligence information,
each query is a separate search that may require a separate warrant.315
Similarly, the Ninth Circuit has held that law enforcement cannot conduct
subsequent queries of the information on a computer beyond the initial query
authorized by a warrant, because the government “should not be able to comb
through [the defendant’s] computers plucking out new forms of evidence that
the investigating agents have decided may be useful” after it failed to find all
the evidence it would have liked in the initial search.316
Geofence warrants authorize exactly what the Ninth Circuit prohibits:
They allow the government to comb through Google’s database for additional
evidence of wrongdoing after failing to find all of its desired evidence in the
initial data dump.317 When law enforcement searches data outside of the
initially specified time and geographic range, officers may be undertaking
multiple searches, an unconstitutional action under a single warrant.
VI. Corporate Policy and Fourth Amendment Protections

Geofence warrants raise questions regarding the role that technology
companies play in maintaining Fourth Amendment protections. Relative to
the invasive and widespread use of geofences, state and federal legislators have
taken little notice of the practice.318 And geofence-warrant doctrine is
virtually nonexistent in the courts, with no binding precedent as of this
writing.319 In this void, privacy protections are governed by corporate policy.
That Google is regulating state and federal use of geofence warrants has
314. See supra Part I.B.2; Google Amicus Brief, supra note 13, at 12-14.
315. United States v. Hasbajrami, 945 F.3d 641, 669-73 (2d Cir. 2019).
316. United States v. Sedaghaty, 728 F.3d 885, 913 (9th Cir. 2013).
318. See Issie Lapowsky, New York Lawmakers Want to Outlaw Geofence Warrants as Protests
Grow, PROTOCOL (June 16, 2020), https://perma.cc/3HPW-BKT9 (noting that New
York’s proposed ban on geofence warrants “would be the first in the United States”).
319. See supra Part III.
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
significant implications for (1) the way that Fourth Amendment analysis is and
should be conducted; (2) how user’s rights should be protected; and (3) how
much deference government litigation positions are owed with regard to
geofence surveillance.
This Part begins by discussing the source of the vacuum in which Google
has been able to take control: legislative inaction, particularly by the federal
government. It then considers (1) Google’s reasons for choosing to implement
its policies; (2) law enforcement’s acquiescence; and (3) the implications of this
arrangement on democratic accountability, consumer privacy, and the role of
the courts.
A. Absence of Legislation
Legislative rules could govern and regulate the use of geofence warrants,
going above the constitutional floor or mandating protections in the absence
of a precedential holding.320 But Congress has displayed little inclination to act.
Similarly, although a few promising signs have emerged in certain state
legislatures, no bill that would curb geofence use by law enforcement has
neared passage.
At the time of writing, Congress has not indicated a willingness to regulate
law enforcement’s access to geofence data. The only direct mention of geofence
warrants in Congress came in a July 2020 appearance by the chief executive
officers of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, and Facebook
before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and
Administrative Law.321 During that hearing, Representative Kelly Armstrong
explained to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai that he believed geofence warrants
were “the single most important issue” before the Subcommittee, because such
warrants fall short of the Fourth Amendment’s probable-cause and
particularity requirements.322 “People would be terrified to know,”
320. Cf. Orin S. Kerr, A User’s Guide to the Stored Communications Act, and a Legislator’s Guide to
Amending It, 72 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1208, 1212 (2004) (explaining how the Stored
Communications Act created a “set of Fourth Amendment-like privacy protections by
statute, regulating the relationship between government investigators and service
providers in possession of users’ private information”); Susan Freiwald, Online
Surveillance: Remembering the Lessons of the Wiretap Act, 56 ALA. L. REV. 9, 24-26 (2004)
(detailing how the Wiretap Act set protections above the constitutional floor after the
Supreme Court’s decision in Berger).
321. See User Clip: Google “Geofence” Warrants Questioned, C-SPAN (July 29, 2020),
https://perma.cc/WR4C-66TC. A 2019 letter to Google from the House Committee on
Energy and Commerce also expressed concern about the SensorVault’s storage of
precise location data. Letter from U.S. House of Representatives Comm. on Energy &
Com. Members to Sundar Pichai, Chief Exec. Officer, Google 1-3 (Apr. 23, 2019),
https://perma.cc/JSW7-W9AY. No response from Google has been reported.
322. User Clip: Google “Geofence” Warrants Questioned, supra note 321, at 02:06-02:10.
438
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
Representative Armstrong emphasized, “that law enforcement can grab

general warrants and get everybody’s information anywhere.”323
There has been slightly more movement at the state level. In April 2020,
legislators in New York’s Assembly and Senate introduced legislation to ban
law enforcement’s use of geofence searches.324 New York’s proposed ban—the
first such legislation nationally—would prohibit “the search, with or without a
warrant, of geolocation data of a group of people who are under no individual
suspicion of having committed a crime.”325 As of this writing, however,
neither bill has advanced out of committee.326
Some states have their own data privacy regimes that grant additional
protections beyond federal requirements. For example, California’s Electronic
Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA) generally requires a warrant to access
“electronic device information” regardless of who possesses the data.327 Other
states, including Maine,328 Massachusetts,329 Minnesota,330 Montana,331 New
Hampshire,332 Rhode Island,333 Utah,334 and Vermont335 have similar judicial
or statutory requirements for a warrant to obtain digital location
323. Id. at 01:56-02:00.

324. Assemb. 10246-A, 243d Leg., Reg. Sess. (N.Y. 2020), https://perma.cc/8BQJ-VF79;
S. 8183, 243d Leg., Reg. Sess. (N.Y. 2020), https://perma.cc/M4Z7-L7QB.
325. N.Y. Assemb. 10246-A; N.Y.S. 8183; Lapowsky, supra note 318; see also Uberti, supra
note 30; Mike Maharrey, New York Bill Would Ban Geolocation Tracking and Geofencing
Warrants, TENTH AMEND. CTR. (Apr. 15, 2020), https://perma.cc/M2YD-J4F4; Press
Release, Surveillance Tech. Oversight Project, S.T.O.P. Welcomes Introduction of NY
Geolocation Tracking Ban (Apr. 10, 2020), https://perma.cc/4A7E-2FPY.
326. Assembly Bill A10246A, N.Y. ST. SENATE, https://perma.cc/6YSR-WXWN (archived
Oct. 23, 2021); Senate Bill S8183, N.Y. ST. SENATE, https://perma.cc/DV9L-USFT
(archived Oct. 23, 2021). Another bill in Utah that would have placed some limits on the
use of geofence warrants gained traction in 2021 but ultimately did not pass. H.R. 251,
64th Leg., 2021 Gen. Sess. (Utah 2021), https://perma.cc/C63U-97KH; H.B. 251 Electronic
Location Amendments, UTAH ST. LEGISLATURE, https://perma.cc/248V-5MGJ (archived
Jan. 29, 2022); Art Raymond, Bill Targets How Police Use Info Showing Where You’ve Been
and What Internet Searches You Make, DESERET NEWS (Feb. 25, 2021, 9:52 PM MST),
https://perma.cc/4SYY-L96F.
327. CAL. PENAL CODE §§ 1546(g), 1546.1(c) (West 2021).
328. ME. REV. STAT. ANN. tit. 16, § 648 (2021).
329. Commonwealth v. Augustine, 4 N.E.3d 846, 863-66 (Mass. 2014).
330. MINN. STAT. § 626A.42 subdiv. 2 (2021).
331. MONT. CODE ANN. § 46-5-110 (2021).
332. N.H. REV. STAT. ANN. § 644-A:2 (2021).
333. 12 R.I. GEN. LAWS § 12-32-2 (2021).
334. UTAH CODE ANN. § 77-23c-102 (West 2021).
335. VT. STAT. ANN. tit. 13, §§ 8101, 8102 (2021).
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Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
information.336 Warrants governed by CalECPA must include the “time

periods covered,” the “applications or services covered, and the types of
information sought,” and they must “describe with particularity the
information to be seized by specifying . . . the target individuals or accounts.”337
CalECPA’s particularity requirement was briefed in Dawes as independent
grounds to invalidate the warrant.338 It is not yet clear, however, whether
existing state privacy laws can address the concerns of geofence warrants. And
many states lack data privacy regimes altogether.
B. Corporate Constitutional Policy

Because of legislative inaction, private corporate policy has replaced
democratic governance for geofence warrants. When judges consider geofence
warrants, they should therefore note that what comes before them is not the
product of democratically considered legislation, but rather the result of
internal policy decisions by a single corporation, Google, with which law
enforcement has complied.339
Early geofence warrants sought subscriber information and location
history for all devices within the geofence—essentially an unrestrained,
336. See generally State Location Privacy Policy, ELEC. PRIV. INFO. CTR., https://perma.cc/55CU-
JSWK (archived Oct. 23, 2021) (tracking pending and passed state legislation focused on
location privacy); Cell Phone Privacy, ACLU, https://perma.cc/2D6E-VE6Y (archived
Oct. 23, 2021) (highlighting the ACLU’s various efforts to increase cell phone users’
privacy rights). For those users willing to proactively limit what location (and other
personal) data is held by mobile carriers and technology corporations, the California
Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) protects any personal information that “identifies,
relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably
be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household,” including
geolocation data. CAL. CIV. CODE § 1798.140(o)(1) (West 2021). Under the CCPA, an
individual can find out what types of personal data a business has collected and how
such information is to be used. Individuals can also direct businesses to (1) delete their
personal information if certain conditions are met; or (2) refrain from selling their data
to third parties. Id. §§ 1798.100, .105, .110, .115, .120, .130, .135.
337. CAL. PENAL CODE § 1546.1(d)(1) (West 2021).
338. See Dawes Motion to Quash & Suppress, supra note 81, at 16-19. CalECPA, in contrast to
similar federal laws, includes a statutory suppression remedy. Compare PENAL
§ 1546.4(a), with 18 U.S.C. §§ 2703, 2708.
339. This Subpart’s discussion builds on literature examining (1) how a lack of legislation
can affect the exercise of constitutional rights; and (2) the role of corporations in this
context. See generally Jonathan Mayer, Government Hacking, 127 YALE L.J. 570, 575-78,
653-54 (2018) (noting that law enforcement increasingly uses unregulated hacking
technology to access encrypted computer systems); Kate Klonick, The New Governors:
The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech, 131 HARV. L. REV. 1598, 1601-03
(2018) (exploring how private platforms’ policies increasingly control public debate,
free speech, and democratic norms).
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74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
unmasked data dump.340 In response to these broad requests, Google adopted

an internal policy of objecting to any request that was not a probable-cause
search warrant.341 It also created the current three-step process in an effort to
narrow the amount of identifying information produced.342 Without judicial
or legislative action, Google essentially imposed a warrant requirement and ex
ante search protocols. The corporation even filed an amicus brief in Chatrie
asserting that its own policy should be the constitutional minimum.343
And law enforcement has deferred to Google’s policy. Consequently, most
affidavits accompanying geofence warrants are boilerplate, sharing the same
multistep form and general supporting statements.344 Law enforcement has
apparently decided that it is better to avoid litigation against well-resourced
Google and not challenge its policy.
Google’s power in the geofence-warrant process parallels the larger social
and political power of technology companies. As Alan Rozenshtein writes,
“[b]y entrusting our data processing and communications to a handful of giant
technology companies, we’ve created a new generation of surveillance
intermediaries: large, powerful companies that stand between the government
and our data and, in the process, help constrain government surveillance.”345 In
recent years, these surveillance intermediaries have increasingly challenged
subpoenas and search warrants; commentators have tied this change to
consumer privacy concerns after Edward Snowden’s 2013 surveillance
disclosures.346 In one notable instance, Microsoft invoked its duty to its
customers when it sued the federal government over the routine inclusion of
secrecy orders alongside search warrants.347 The threat of Google litigating in
340. Declaration of Sarah Rodriguez, supra note 10, ¶ 5.

341. See, e.g., Affidavit ¶ 1 n.1, In re the Search of Info. Regarding Accts. Associated With
Certain Location and Date Info., No. 18-mj-00169 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 10, 2019), ECF No. 9-
1 (“Google has indicated that it believes a search warrant is required to obtain the
location data sought in this application.”).
342. See Declaration of Sarah Rodriguez, supra note 10, ¶ 5.
344. See, e.g., sources cited supra note 80.
345. Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Surveillance Intermediaries, 70 STAN. L. REV. 99, 105 (2018)
(emphasis omitted); see also Orin S. Kerr, The Case for the Third-Party Doctrine, 107 MICH.
L. REV. 561, 600 (2009) (“The prospect of resistance from the legal teams of third-party
record holders often creates a substantial deterrence against government overreaching
even when the third-party doctrine does not.”).
346. See Developments in the Law—More Data, More Problems, 131 HARV. L. REV. 1714, 1726-27
(2018) (discussing the rise in litigation “challenging the government over requests for
information” since the Snowden revelations).
347. See Brad Smith, Keeping Secrecy the Exception, Not the Rule: An Issue for Both Consumers
and Businesses, MICROSOFT: MICROSOFT ON THE ISSUES (Apr. 14, 2016), https://perma.cc/
5Z5G-TGF5.
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the geofence context fits into this broader trend.348 But while Google may have
post-Snowden economic incentives to consider privacy concerns, it remains a
body with little direct accountability. Absent legislation, Google is beholden
only to its shareholders and its corporate purpose.
Privacy “on the ground” thus remains the product of corporate norms and
private review processes.349 While the European Union has mandated a robust
privacy regime under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),350 the
United States remains a regulatory patchwork lacking meaningful, binding
national privacy requirements.351 Without clear standards from legislation,
corporations fashion their own protocols and thresholds for responding to
subpoenas, warrants, and other law-enforcement requests.352 Democratic
oversight is dangerously absent, a shortcoming that even some technology
companies are eager to see remedied. As Apple CEO Tim Cook told the
348. See Brewster, supra note 67; Rozenshtein, supra note 345, at 109 (“Intermediaries couple
a proceduralism that rejects voluntary cooperation with government requests to an
aggressive litigiousness against government demands for data and restrictions on
publicizing those requests.” (emphasis omitted)).
349. See Kenneth A. Bamberger & Deirdre K. Mulligan, Privacy on the Books and on the
Ground, 63 STAN. L. REV. 247, 261-63 (2011) (describing the rise of corporate privacy
audits, privacy certification programs, and chief privacy officers).
350. Council Regulation 2016/679, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1; see The EU General Data Protection
Regulation: Questions and Answers, HUM. RTS. WATCH (June 6, 2018, 5:00 AM EDT),
https://perma.cc/M6A3-RYHV (surveying the GDPR’s various requirements,
including consumer consent, special protections for sensitive information, disclosure,
privacy by design, and the right to be forgotten).
351. See Michael Beckerman, Opinion, Americans Will Pay a Price for State Privacy Laws, N.Y.
TIMES (Oct. 14, 2019), https://perma.cc/RDA7-T8S9 (arguing that federal inaction on
data privacy legislation has resulted in “inconsistent treatment of data depending on a
variety of factors, including the residency of the consumer and the type of businesses
with whom they interact”). The standards that do exist are long outdated, with
Congress continually refusing to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
of 1986 (ECPA), which rests on an understanding of technology that is now obsolete.
See ECPA (Part 1): Lawful Access to Stored Content: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Crime,
Terrorism, Homeland Sec., & Investigations of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 113th Cong. 1
(2013) (statement of Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Chairman, Subcomm. on Crime,
Terrorism, Homeland Sec., & Investigations of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary) (“The
Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 . . . is complicated, outdated, and
largely unconstitutional.”); id. at 48 (statement of Richard Salgado, Director, Law
Enforcement and Information Security, Google Inc.) (“The distinctions that ECPA
made in 1986 were foresighted in light of technology at the time. But in 2013, ECPA
frustrates users’ reasonable expectations of privacy.”); see also Kerr, supra note 320, at
1208 (noting that the Stored Communications Act, which forms part of ECPA, “is a bit
outdated and has several gaps in need of legislative attention”).
352. The absence of legislation also allows corporations to self-regulate in other realms
traditionally protected by the Constitution, including speech. See Klonick, supra
note 339, at 1615, 1666-69 (describing how moderation by private online platforms
shapes U.S. speech norms).
442
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
European Parliament, “our own information . . . is being weaponized against us

with military efficiency.”353 “Scraps of data,” Cook noted, “each one harmless
enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded, and sold.”354
Accordingly, after he praised “the transformative work of the European
institutions tasked with a successful implementation of the GDPR,” Cook
voiced Apple’s “full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the
United States.”355
As it currently stands, corporations are free to shift their privacy policies
in response to global events, political currents, and economic incentives. When
Apple announced that it planned to scan U.S. iPhones and their encrypted
messages for images of child sexual abuse, for example, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation decried the decision as “a shocking about-face for users who have
relied on the company’s leadership in privacy and security.”356 After this and
other backlash, Apple reversed its decision.357
But not all shifts are protective, and some shifts are less protective than
others. Although Google has announced the development of a “Privacy
Dashboard” for future rollout to Android users,358 this feature will offer fewer
tracking protections and consent workflows than Apple’s current iPhone
operating system.359 And Android phones, relative to iPhones, are more likely
to be owned by poorer consumers.360 As a result, if geofence warrants remain
pervasive, those caught up in data returns from Google (or possibly other
corporations) will disproportionately be Android users, on the whole a less
353. Eur. Data Prot. Supervisor, Keynote Address from Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc, YOUTUBE, at
05:41-05:50 (Oct. 24, 2018), https://perma.cc/8SAB-ELYW.
354. Id. at 06:15-06:25.
355. Id. at 08:11-08:20, 08:52-08:59.
356. India McKinney & Erica Portnoy, Apple’s Plan to “Think Different” About Encryption
Opens a Backdoor to Your Private Life, ELEC. FRONTIER FOUND. (Aug. 5, 2021),
https://perma.cc/Y7Z4-2SRA; see Frank Bajak & Barbara Ortutay, Apple to Scan U.S.
iPhones for Images of Child Sexual Abuse, AP NEWS (Aug. 6, 2021), https://perma.cc/
2WAD-HSUV.
357. See Carly Page, Apple Quietly Pulls References to Its CSAM Detection Tech After Privacy
Fears, TECHCRUNCH (Dec. 15, 2021, 6:24 AM PST), https://perma.cc/P5AC-MKH9.
358. See Sarah N-Marandi, What’s New in Android Privacy, ANDROID DEVS. BLOG (May 18,
2021), https://perma.cc/4CYN-E6E9.
359. Gerrit De Vynck, Google Announces New Privacy Features for Android Phones—but Stops
Short of Limiting Ad Tracking, WASH. POST (May 18, 2021, 8:53 PM EDT),
https://perma.cc/47XW-ZVJ8.
360. See Press Release, Slickdeals, iPhone Users Spend $101 Every Month on Tech
Purchases, Nearly Double of Android Users, According to a Survey Conducted by
Slickdeals (Oct. 30, 2018), https://perma.cc/4JY7-Y9W2; see also Jim Edwards, Here’s
Why Developers Keep Favoring Apple Over Android, SLATE (Apr. 4, 2014, 1:23 PM),
https://perma.cc/M5QB-9GE8.
443
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
wealthy group. Absent legislation or executive action, the only chance of

addressing such inequities may be through corporate policy.
Given our current regulatory vacuum, the role of courts in assessing
geofence warrants is paramount. When a court considers a geofence warrant,
there is a danger that it will uncritically rely on whatever information the
government presents. Indeed, some commentators have argued that federal
magistrates are subject to Department of Justice capture.361 If courts
uncritically rely on government positions regarding geofence warrants, they
are transitively subject to Google capture. Courts must remain vigilant in
enforcing the underlying probable-cause and particularity requirements of
geofence warrants, and they should not simply rubber-stamp Google’s ex ante
search protocols. While Google’s procedures may narrow the scope of a
geofence warrant, they do not automatically create a search that is acceptable
under the Fourth Amendment. In particular, courts should be skeptical of
discretionary selective expansion, where law enforcement returns to and
negotiates with Google instead of a magistrate to seek an expanded search.362
Courts cannot unilaterally stop consumer data from being used in a widespread
surveillance regime. But they can prevent corporate technology giants from
replacing the constitutionally mandated check of a neutral judiciary.
Conclusion
Geofence warrants raise important Fourth Amendment questions. Courts
have yet to engage deeply with issues of probable cause, particularity, and
search expansion as they relate to geofences. And with corporate procedural
demands shaping the legal terrain, law enforcement’s tendency toward
minimally specific warrants has faced little resistance. Without legislative
action or increased judicial scrutiny of geofence warrants, undemocratic,
discretionary corporate policy will continue to shape location-history
protections.
As a closing note: Many commentators have highlighted the utility of
geofence warrants, explaining that they “greatly enhance[] investigations,”363
“help authorities catch criminals,”364 and so on. These comments may be true,
361. See Mayer, supra note 339, at 651 (“In the district courts in particular, federal
prosecutors are consummate repeat players . . . . The result appears to be a (mild) form
of regulatory capture, in which prosecutorial arguments receive unusual deference.”
(footnote omitted)).
363. Devon Alan Frankel, Digital Dragnet: Geofence Warrants and Their Constitutional
Issues 1 (2020), https://perma.cc/8Z32-HD3U.
364. Wendy Davis, Law Enforcement Is Using Location Tracking on Mobile Devices to Identify
Suspects, but Is It Unconstitutional?, ABA J. (Dec. 1, 2020, 1:50 AM CST), https://perma.cc/
444
Against Geofences
74 STAN. L. REV. 385 (2022)
but they miss the point. Geofence warrants are indeed a powerful investigative
tool. The same can be said for Carpenter’s cell-site location information,365 the
eavesdrop orders placed on Berger’s conversations,366 and the door-to-door
search used to find and arrest Wilkes.367 Such is the burden of the Bill of
Rights: “Privacy comes at a cost.”368
J2GK-S3JU. Sandra Doorley, president of the District Attorneys Association of the

State of New York and a district attorney in Monroe County, noted that geofence
warrants have “proven to be helpful in solving crimes such as pattern burglaries,
arsons and sexual assaults.” Id. (quoting Doorley). As previously discussed, carefully
crafted geofence-warrant applications for these pattern crimes could pass
constitutional muster. See supra notes 284-85 and accompanying text.
365. See Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2220-21 (2018) (placing limits on the use
of this information).
366. See Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41, 58-59 (1967) (placing limits on the use of this
practice).
367. See Wilkes v. Wood (1763) 98 Eng. Rep. 489, 498-99; Lofft 1, 18-19 (placing limits on the
use of this technique).
368. Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373, 401 (2014).
445

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Stanford Law Review

Volume 74 February 2022

Abstract. Law enforcement is increasingly relying on a new tool when investigating

of iterative steps between the provider and law enforcement—without the

2018.12 This figure, Google explained in a court document, represented “over a

‘clicks.’”22 Reports of wrongful arrests due to geofence warrants have already

Fourth Amendment searches.27 For geofences specifically, however, Google’s

I. The Technology Behind a Geofence Request

29. 444 U.S. 85, 87-88 (1979).

with mobile internet capabilities.36 Approximately 46.8% of these U.S.

compliance with a search warrant.44 Tallies have continued to grow, however,

doing so,” and researchers at Princeton University confirmed these findings.52

Zachary McCoy.62 Google’s legal investigations support team notified McCoy

1. Initial data dump

In response, Google discloses an anonymized list of devices, each with a

Time (America/Chica Maps Display

-1025956090 4/8/2019 11:07:00 (-05:00) 43.4214456 -88.3507382 GPS 9

The precision of the latitude and longitude coordinates varies depending

75. See Declaration of Marlo McGriff, supra note 9, ¶ 25.

The radius of Device 2 would look like this:

Therefore, as illustrated in particular for Device 2 (because of its large

A visual representation of the selective-expansion step, showing location history

II. Geofences and the Fourth Amendment

A. Is a Geofence a Fourth Amendment “Search”?

But to briefly indicate our intuitions on the Carpenter question: We agree

There are also real doubts as to whether anonymization actually protects

The pop-up does not reference “Location History” by name. As a result, a

B. Probable Cause, Particularity, and Warrant Execution

of one thing under a warrant describing another.”115 The particularity

III. How Courts Are Handling Geofence Warrants

115. Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196 (1927).

the constitutionality of geofence warrants could emerge from a challenge

A. Northern District of Illinois Magistrate Opinions

1. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: first denial

128. Id. at *1, *3.

identified in this geofence will have nothing whatsoever to do with the

2. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: second denial

137. Id. at *5 (footnote omitted).

3. Pharmaceutical sale investigation: third denial

B. District of Kansas Magistrate Opinion

162. Id. at 357.

properties.”182 Based on these shortcomings, the court held that the

C. Ongoing State and Federal Litigation

182. Id. at *4.

geofence warrant covered a mixed residential–commercial area alongside a

191. Chatrie Motion to Suppress, supra note 78, at 5-6.

In Chatrie, the probable-cause statement for the geofence warrant

D. Preliminary Takeaways from the Early Litigation

202. Affidavit & Search Warrant, supra note 193, at 6.

unconstitutional.210 Rather, the magistrates differed as to when and how a

IV. Constitutionality of the Initial Data Dump

210. See supra Parts III.A-.B.

1. Geofences as Ybarra searches

213. In re the Search Warrant Application, 497 F. Supp. 3d at 356.

The analogy, of course, is imperfect. The search of a person in a bar is not

231. Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373, 386, 401 (2014).

237. See supra Part I.B.3.

3. Geofences as area warrants

245. Id. at 427-28.

128. Id. at 1, 3.