A zero privacy state: All smartphone real-time location data is for sale.

An emerging scandal over the sale of real-time location data of cell phone subscribers underscores why requiring government agencies receive judicial approval is not enough. A handful of companies are selling real-time location data to law enforcement agencies through a loophole in the law. This loophole allows the companies, such as Securus, to sell data they procured from marketing agencies back to law enforcement - or to anyone that asks for it. The marketing agencies receive the data from the cell phone companies, all of which earn significant revenues from packaging and selling customer location data to retailers, marketers and others wishing to sell to smartphone owners.

This is really spooky stuff. We also know that so much of our location data is up for grabs given the extensive digital exhaust trail we emit. Everywhere we go, our devices and our services leave a trail of data indicating where we are and, to a certain extent what we are doing or what we are interested in. However, one would hope that the government would recognize the sensitivity of that data and make it much harder for companies to sell our private location information to the highest bidder - or to anyone online with a credit card! And while government agencies must go through an actual legal process to get direct access to these records, lots of people who might want our information and not have our best intentions in mind, could also get access - such as insurance companies, private detectives (think divorce cases), attorneys, and others.

The New York Times covers this in detail and here’s a letter from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden demanding that Verizon take stronger steps to prevent this type of data leakage. All four major carriers, however, appear to be selling user data to Securus and other similar companies.