New Supreme Court Ruling Protects Your Location Privacy

The Supreme Court has ruled to limit the use of geofence warrants. These warrants allow police to request location data from tech companies like Google to see everyone who was near a crime scene at a specific time. Privacy advocates argued this practice violated constitutional rights because it sweeps up data from innocent people along with suspects. This ruling affects anyone who carries a smartphone with location services turned on. When you use apps or services that track your location, that data gets stored by tech companies. Previously, police could request all of that data for a specific area and time period, potentially putting your private movements under scrutiny even if you had nothing to do with any crime.

While this ruling provides better legal protection, you should still take control of your location privacy.

Here is what to do:

1. Review location settings on your smartphone by going to Settings, then Privacy or Location Services.
2. Turn off location access for apps that do not truly need it to function.
3. For apps you do use, select "While Using the App" instead of "Always" for location permissions.
4. Check your Google account settings at myactivity.google.com and turn off Location History if you prefer not to have this data stored. Making location privacy a regular habit protects you in many ways beyond law enforcement requests. Location data can be sold to advertisers, stolen in data breaches, or misused by apps. Review your phone's location permissions every few months, especially after installing new apps. Teach family members, especially teens, to think carefully before allowing apps to track their location.