Smartphones hold far more data then most people seem to realize. They’ve become our wallets, computers, and even our own personal maps — which is something law enforcement agencies are especially interested in. The business of tracking cell phone users has developed hoards of information for police, who are now keen on using it. According to the New York Times , requests for information from Google’s mobile Location History database — known as Sensorvault —has “risen sharply” in the past six months. Essentially, police submit “geofence warrants” which give a specific time and location. Using the internal database, Google can pass data about devices that were there to the police. The New York Times reported that Google starts by labeling them with anonymous ID numbers. Once law enforcement narrows the devices down, Google will reveal the users’ name and other information. There’s no way to know how many of these search requests end up in arrests or actual convictions. Many of the...

(Cues Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me”) AT&T and other phone companies are restructuring their policies on selling customers’ location data to third-parties after a report by Motherboard found the information was being misused by law enforcement agencies and bounty hunters. AT&T said it would completely stop selling users’ location data, even to firms that had clear, helpful uses for the information. Last year, the company said it would stop selling the information to third parties after it was revealed that location data was being used to track people by law enforcement. “This is outrageous. I didn’t sign up for this when I signed up for wireless service and I bet neither did you,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said to CBS. “It turns out that they’re selling that information to companies called location aggregators who in turn are selling that to shady middlemen who for a few hundred dollars will sell to anyone, your location within a few hundred meters. I think that is a...