Feds Order Google To Hand Over A Load Of Innocent Americans' Locations
Here's how it works: cops send Google specific coordinates and timezones within which crimes were committed. Then Google is asked to provide information on all users within those locations at those times, most likely including data on many innocent people. Those users could be Android phone owners, anyone running Google Maps or any individual running Google services on their cell, not just criminal suspects.
[...] "This fishing expedition infringes on the privacy rights of so many possible people who had the misfortune of being in an area where a crime is alleged to be committed," said Jerome Greco, staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. "We should not allow for such broad access to the data of so many on the mere speculation that a suspect may have used a cellphone near the location of the crime."
[...] Not just Google
Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota said it wasn't just Google that could furnish cops with a startling mount of detailed location data. Facebook and Snapchat were two others who'd proven useful, he said.
Should we be concerned that government tracks people by their cell phones instead of using mandatory brain implants?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:11AM (1 child)
It's sad that we even have to worry about this. They've taken relatively benign concepts (license plates, state IDs/drivers licenses) and turned them into tools for the police state.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:28AM
What makes you think they were ever benign to begin with?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.