A database can be used to stalk someone, but that doesn't make it a 4th Amendment violation. Remember, a cop can just tail you and follow you without a warrant too.
August 13th, 2026
In a ruling that could send ripples through Fourth Amendment law for years to come, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Chatrie v. United States (2026) that law enforcement does indeed conduct a Fourth Amendment search when obtaining a citizen’s location history from a tech company (in this case, Google) via a geofence warrant. Building on the precedent set in Carpenter v. United States (2018), the Court ruled that individuals retain a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell phone location history. SCOTUS rejected the government’s argument that a short window of surveillance (in this case, two hours) does not constitute a search, and held that even brief periods of tracking can reveal constitutionally protected personal details.
Unlike the phone GPS location data, ALPRs are cameras set up in public locations recording what anyone with their own two eyes and a notepad could observe.
If a third party has data about you, then it’s no longer private data and it can be obtained by the police — with a warrant.
The same rule should apply here.