Colorado court upholds Google keyword search warrant which led to arrests in fatal arson

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s highest court has upheld the search of Google users’ keyword history to identify suspects in a fatal arson fire. Critics have called the approach a digital dragnet that threatens to undermine people’s privacy and their constitutional protections. However the Colorado Supreme Court cautioned it was not making a “broad proclamation” on the constitutionality of such warrants and emphasized it was ruling on the facts of just this one case. At issue in Monday’s ruling was a police search warrant requiring Google to provide the IP addresses of anyone who had searched over 15 days for the address of a Denver home that was set on fire in 2020, killing five immigrants from Senegal.