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Cell tower

There's a lot of hand-wringing over the amount of data Google and Facebook have on us, just mobile carriers have been flying under the radar. The fact is, they know roughly where yous are all the fourth dimension, and a new report claims they've been selling admission to that data without the proper privacy safeguards in place. Y'all can thank the shady world of data aggregators for this potentially egregious violation of your privacy.

A quondam Missouri sheriff has been charged with using an online service operated by law enforcement contractor Securus to track cell phones illegally, according to The New York Times. Prosecutors claim Cory Hutcheson used the system at least 11 times betwixt 2022 and 2022 to rails the phones of a judge, members of the state highway patrol, and others.

Securus mainly operates private telephone services for prisons and jails, but cell telephone tracking is a "value-add" option in this lucrative and highly competitive market. The location information comes from a 3rd-party called LocationSmart, which claims to have a straight connection to all four big U.s.a. carriers, as well as several in Canada. The nature of this connection is unclear, but it would appear carriers are not getting the appropriate location consent earlier providing data to LocationSmart.

This location data isn't anything new — your carrier always knows where you are based on network access, and that'south necessary to ensure yous're continued to the right towers. This network location information is non equally accurate as GPS on your phone, but information technology usually pinpoints you within a few city blocks. LocationSmart even has a endeavour-earlier-you-buy demo online where you lot can opt a telephone number into the test and locate it in seconds. I tested it with a throwaway SIM, and it did indeed get close to my actual location.

From a legal perspective, accessing a phone'due south network location may or may not be illegal depending on where you lot live. Some states crave warrants to track phones, but in others y'all only need that for real-fourth dimension tracking. In a few places, this information requires no warrant at all. Us Senator Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the FCC seeking an investigation of Securus and LocationSmart, but the agency has not replied withal.

Carriers seem defenseless off guard by this written report. They all accept privacy policies that seem to prohibit this sort of sharing without consent, but Hutcheson was allegedly able to use Securus' connection to LocationSmart to spy on multiple phones for years without anyone knowing. We've reached out to the big four US carriers to see if nosotros can get updated statements on what, if anything, they are doing as a result of the New York Times report.