Federal court rules geofence warrants are unconstitutional:
In another round of increasingly rare good news in the realm of privacy, individual rights and freedom, two separate US federal judges have found geofence warrants to be unconstitutional.
Geofence warrants have been around for some time now. Essentially, it's a new investigative technique wherein law enforcement, rather than surveilling a suspect to discover if they had been at the scene of a crime, they work backwards by identifying everyone that's been at a particular location and surveilling them until they discover which one of them is a possible suspect.
[...] US courts have recently begun accepting that our smartphones hold so much data about us that they should be protected by the fourth amendment, as an extension of our homes.
Three separate unsealed opinions from two federal magistrate judges have come to the same conclusion: that these warrants lack the probable cause and particularity requirements of the fourth amendment.
[...] It's disturbing to think of just how many Americans' constitutional rights would have been violated if the warrant was granted. Even more disturbing is other such warrants possibly getting granted regularly, aside from what information Google willingly hands over to governments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @08:19PM (3 children)
It seems at this point, all you had to say was "not guilty"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @10:44PM
Yep, smells fishy. He could have dragged it out for months and not spent a dime. And he could have sued the neighbor for emotional trauma. Sorry, don't like this story one bit.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday September 04 2020, @06:13PM (1 child)
My office provides me with cheap legal insurance. So, I did find and consulted a good attorney in a day.
Plea guilty, pay whatever they say and forgetaboutit was his advice.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @02:55PM
Yeah, unless you have money to blow and nothing better to do, just take the loss and let it slide. Criminal charges are somewhat easier to fight if you have money, but if you don't the situation is pretty similar.