Spies (Really) Like Us

“The tool collects vast quantities of location data from smartphones via commonly used weather, gaming, email and religious apps. It can build a detailed picture of where a smartphone has been over the past 12 months, and update the data hourly, showing the movements of people on a near real-time basis. Law enforcement officers can use Webloc to zero in on a map and look at all phones that were present at a specific place and time, analyzing ‘billions of location data points.’ … The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that law enforcement agencies must obtain a warrant from a judge to obtain location data from telecommunications companies. But the Justice Department has since argued that the principle does not apply to location data that agencies purchase from commercial sources, and Webloc users now include US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at least two branches of the US military, and more than a dozen American police forces.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): Ads in Popular Apps Give Police a Powerful Tool to Spy on Users.