Police draw a circle on a map. Google gives them everyone who was inside it. Including you.
A geofence warrant lets police ask Google for a list of every device that was near a crime scene at a specific time — searching tens of millions of innocent people's location data to find one suspect.
Police define a geographic area and time window. Google searches its Sensorvault database — which contains detailed location history for hundreds of millions of users — and returns a list of devices that were in the area. Police then request more detailed data for specific devices. Unlike a normal warrant which names a suspect, a geofence warrant starts with a location and works backward through everyone's data.
By 2019, Google was receiving 180 geofence warrants per week — a 1,500% increase from 2017. Each warrant requires searching tens of millions of user accounts. Google representatives told the court in United States v. Chatrie that every geofence warrant searches the entire Sensorvault database.
Jorge Molina, 23, was arrested for murder based on Google location data. Police told him his phone 'one hundred percent, without a doubt' placed him at the crime scene. He spent 6 days in jail. The case fell apart. Charges were never filed. He lost his car, his job, and his reputation. Others affected: a bicyclist swept into a burglary investigation, a warehouse worker mistakenly charged with murder.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Chatrie v. United States — the first constitutional challenge to geofence warrants. A decision is expected by mid-2026. If ruled unconstitutional, police lose a tool they've relied on thousands of times. Google announced in 2023 it would move Location History data to devices only, potentially making future geofence warrants impossible — but existing Sensorvault data remains.