Skye Witley reports:
Google’s decision to limit its access to users’ location data will reshape police investigations well before appellate courts get a chance to rule on the constitutionality of law enforcement’s use of geofencing surveillance technology.
The Alphabet Inc. unit’s move to encrypt users’ Google Maps location history and store it on their devices, announced last week, will eventually render the company unable to fulfill geofence warrants, which typically seek to identify anyone with Google accounts who was within a given perimeter during the time of a crime.
Privacy advocates, who’ve backed the challenges to a practice they’ve labeled an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, lauded the move. But police and others contend that without the information in Google’s database, some cases may go unsolved or take longer to investigate.
Read more at Bloomberg.