U.S. Marshall used cop phone to track people he knew

[Pauls' Revere]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bqew/us-marshal-securus-phone-location-tracked

Securus is a massive prison and law enforcement contractor that, among many other things, previously offered a service for geolocating nearly all phones in the United States called Location Based Services. This was facilitated by a continuous relationship with a location data broker called 3Cinteractive Corporation, which in turn obtained access to the data from another broker called LocationSmart. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon sold the access to their own users’ location data to LocationSmart as part of a convoluted supply chain of data that most phone users likely had no idea existed. The system provided users with a handy map interface of where their target was approximately located.

Securus said it only offered the location service to law enforcement officials. During its operation users were asked to upload a document, such as a search warrant or other legal mechanism, and tick a box saying that the document gave them permission to lookup the requested location data. In 2018, Senator Wyden described this process as little more than a “pinky promise.”

“When Securus gave law enforcement essentially unrestricted access to track any phone in the country, it was inevitable the system would be abused. Requiring a pinky promise of a court order was woefully insufficient, as this case demonstrates.”

At the time of the Times’ and Senator Wyden’s investigations into Securus, the telecoms said they would stop selling users’ location data. A year later, Motherboard published a wave of stories showing not only that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint continued to share such information, but that it was being sold to bounty hunters and other third parties. After those revelations, the telecoms finally stopped the data selling program.

 

[ClaytonB]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bqew/us-marshal-securus-phone-location-tracked

Securus is a massive prison and law enforcement contractor that, among many other things, previously offered a service for geolocating nearly all phones in the United States called Location Based Services. This was facilitated by a continuous relationship with a location data broker called 3Cinteractive Corporation, which in turn obtained access to the data from another broker called LocationSmart. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon sold the access to their own users’ location data to LocationSmart as part of a convoluted supply chain of data that most phone users likely had no idea existed. The system provided users with a handy map interface of where their target was approximately located.

Securus said it only offered the location service to law enforcement officials. During its operation users were asked to upload a document, such as a search warrant or other legal mechanism, and tick a box saying that the document gave them permission to lookup the requested location data. In 2018, Senator Wyden described this process as little more than a “pinky promise.”

“When Securus gave law enforcement essentially unrestricted access to track any phone in the country, it was inevitable the system would be abused. Requiring a pinky promise of a court order was woefully insufficient, as this case demonstrates.”

At the time of the Times’ and Senator Wyden’s investigations into Securus, the telecoms said they would stop selling users’ location data. A year later, Motherboard published a wave of stories showing not only that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint continued to share such information, but that it was being sold to bounty hunters and other third parties. After those revelations, the telecoms finally stopped the data selling program.

They have gone hog-wild with US citizens' private data since 9/11 and they will continue to go hog-wild until this is put to a hard stop. I am pessimistic that anything less than an amendment to the Constitution can stop it. Congress has been captured by the special interests behind this (many in LE) and they indirectly benefit in many ways. The executive branch was begging for these powers for many decades but it wasn't until Congress gave the green-light after 9/11 that they could really let the hell-hounds run free. And making sure that lots of local LE are involved is crucial to protecting these powers because it creates a powerful lobby that will fight to prevent having them rescinded in Congress, where they originated. The United States of America -- in the sense of the land of the free and home of the brave -- died on 9/11/2001. Our enemies who orchestrated those attacks succeeded in their strategic objectives beyond their wildest dreams...

 

[Brian4Liberty]

IIRC, as soon as the phone was invented, government (and LE) was given access to listen to anyone. Technology advancements is what we have seen since then.