New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking (aclu.org)

Article summary

The US Department of Homeland Security has been purchasing and using large quantities of cell phone location data from data brokers, raising concerns about the government's ability to track individuals without a warrant. The data is collected from smartphone apps and can be used to identify patterns of life, track specific individuals, and learn details of private activities and associations. The ACLU has obtained thousands of pages of documents detailing the government's purchase and use of this data, and is advocating for Congress to pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act to prevent such practices. The government's actions have sparked debate about the balance between national security and individual privacy.

Main themes

• surveillance state
• privacy erosion
• big tech and government
• Fourth Amendment rights
• encryption and security
• national security vs individual liberty
• data collection and brokerage

What commenters say

• The US government's purchase of cell phone location data from data brokers is a significant threat to individual privacy and constitutes a surveillance state.
• Big tech companies are also responsible for the erosion of privacy, as they collect and sell large amounts of personal data to the government and other entities.
• Individuals cannot effectively protect themselves from government surveillance through personal actions, such as using burner phones or encryption, due to the complexity and scope of the surveillance system.
• The push for HTTPS encryption has been supported by the US government, but its effectiveness in protecting privacy is limited and may be compromised by future advances in encryption-breaking technology.
• The government's ability to track individuals without a warrant is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment and requires legislative action to prevent.
• The use of cell phone location data for law enforcement purposes may have some benefits, such as helping to solve crimes, but these benefits do not outweigh the significant risks to individual privacy and liberty.
• The relationship between big tech and big government is symbiotic, with each entity benefiting from the other's actions and contributing to the erosion of privacy and the growth of the surveillance state.