On April 27, the Supreme Court will hear Chatrie v. United States, a case that examines the legal boundaries of police use of cellphone tracking data. This follows a significant ruling in Carpenter v. United States from 2018, which established that law enforcement generally requires a warrant to access location data from cellular providers.
Cellphones, which connect to nearby towers, provide law enforcement with the ability to track users’ movements. The upcoming case will address several unresolved issues from the earlier ruling, including the specifics of warrants for accessing location data and the extent of information police can gather about individuals who are not suspected of any crime.
Additionally, the court will consider the implications of users voluntarily opting into services that track their location, as well as whether companies should provide only anonymized data to the government. The decisions made in this case could significantly impact privacy rights in an era dominated by surveillance technologies.