Supreme Court to decide if police can use your phone's location data
The Supreme Court is set to rule on whether police can use geofence warrants—basically, requests for location data from services like Google—to find out who was near a crime scene.
This all started with a 2019 bank robbery in Virginia, where police used Google data to catch Okello Chatrie, who's now serving almost 12 years in prison.
Why it matters for your privacy
Chatrie's lawyers say these warrants scoop up info on everyone nearby, not just suspects—so they're a privacy nightmare.
Prosecutors argue that people give up some privacy when they turn on things like Google Location History.
Courts have been split: one judge said the search violated rights but allowed the evidence anyway; another court called these warrants unconstitutional.
The case is expected to be argued before the Supreme Court later this year, which could change how much digital privacy we all have going forward.