In such circumstances, the warrant requirement, with its limited exceptions, provides a necessary check on overreach by law enforcement authorities. After all, if cops can tail a suspect for days or weeks without a warrant, what difference does it make if the tracking is done by an undercover officer or a GPS device under the hood of a suspectвЂ™s car? However, when вЂњmachines are watchingвЂќ-that is, when tracking is automated and extended for prolonged periods of time-the potential for abuse grows larger. It may seem at first glance that GPS tracking of public actions-actions that the police can otherwise follow without a warrant in the status quo-is harmless from a privacy perspective. This confusion has led some to conclude that the use of GPS surveillance technology for prolonged, automated surveillance of targets should not be considered a вЂњsearchвЂќ subject to the Fourth Amendment, at least to the extent that the surveillance occurs on public streets.ДЄs we argue in this Essay, the use of GPS surveillance for prolonged monitoring without a warrant cannot pass muster under the Fourth Amendment. However, the JusticesвЂ™ failure to explain clearly the source of their concerns about new technology, coupled with their haphazard use of language, has confused the lower courts and commentators. United States, when it recognized that new technologies make a private space/public space line unworkable. The Court rejected that doctrine in Katz v. At other times, the Court has reverted to language reminiscent of past Fourth Amendment doctrine requiring some sort of physical trespass in order to trigger the warrant requirement. At times, they have relied on a distinction between sense enhancement and sense creation, a superficial distinction that fails to delineate when new surveillance technology is problematic. Unfortunately, in drawing lines between technology such as powerful binoculars that merely enhance the senses of law enforcement officials and technology such as thermal imaging devices that create new superhuman powers, the Justices have offered confusing guidance to lower courts.

4th monitor wrath of the machine