S.T.O.P. Welcomes ‘Landmark’ Ruling Against Geofence Warrants, Renews Call For NY Ban

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View this email in your browser For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Welcomes ‘Landmark’ Ruling Against Geofence Warrants, Renews Call For NY Ban (New York, NY, 3/8/2022) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based civil rights group, welcomes what it calls a “landmark” ruling from the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, holding that a geofence warrant is unconstitutional. Since 2018, geofence warrants have quickly grown to be issued thousands of times a year, with each warrant potentially collecting data on every person in an area as large as a city. The decision, the first from a Federal District Court, sets a precedent that could block geofence warrants across the country. S.T.O.P. also called on New York State to immediately enact a complete ban on the search tool and related police tactics, including any purchase of location information from data brokers. SEE: Decision - U.S. v. Okello T. Chatrie https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21338805-2022-3-3-opinion?responsive=1&title=1 NBC - Cellphone dragnet used to find bank robbery suspect was unconstitutional, judge says https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/geofence-warrants-help-police-find-suspects-using-google-ruling-could-n1291098 S.T.O.P - Geolocation Tracking Ban https://www.stopspying.org/location-tracking “We’ve called geofence warrants ‘unconstitutional’ for years, and it’s great to see the courts catching up,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “But we can’t afford to wait for this question to be litigated to the Supreme Court, and that’s why we’re calling on New York and other states to outlaw geofence warrants today. As the court acknowledged in its ruling, there is an urgent need for action by lawmakers. This dangerous tool has gone unregulated for far too long, and it’s time for Albany to act. Left unchecked, a single geofence warrant could identify every person who attends a protest, worships at a church or mosque, or goes to an abortion clinic.”  In April 2020, the civil rights group helped introduce the nation’s first proposed ban on geofence warrants. The New York law would outlaw reverse keyword search warrants and police use of commercial databases to track location data. As noted by the Court in Virginia, such “thoughtful legislation could not only protect the privacy of citizens, but also could relieve companies of the burden to police law enforcement requests for the data they lawfully have.” S.T.O.P. has pushed Google and other technology companies to be transparent about their requests for geofence warrant data, with Google releasing a geofence warrant report in August 2021. SEE: Protocol - New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow https://www.protocol.com/new-york-lawmakers-want-to-outlaw-geofence-warrants Google Agrees To Civil Rights Groups’ Demand For Geofence Warrants Report https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2021/8/19/google-agrees-to-civil-rights-groups-demand-for-geofence-warrants-report The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color. -- END -- CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn Copyright © 2021 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.