In a case involving law enforcement’s use of cellphone location data, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other major tech companies on Tuesday told the U.S. Supreme Court that transmission to a service provider should not automatically bar protection of digital data from warrantless search and seizure.
“When customers transmit personal data to technology companies in the course of using digital products and services, they reasonably expect that data and the metadata generated alongside it to be securely stored and remain private as to the rest of the world,” wrote Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr for the companies. “They should not be forced to relinquish Fourth Amendment protections against government intrusion simply by choosing to use those technologies.”
