Credit: Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
- New documents show how the US government is continuing to buy smartphone tracking data on a huge scale.
- Purchasing data allows government officials to bypass the need for a warrant.
- The bipartisan Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act could stop this practice.
Over the past few years, there have been quite a few bombshell reports related to smartphone tracking by the United States government. Essentially, government officials legally buy location data on the open market and use that data to monitor citizens. This loophole allows officials to bypass the need for a warrant when tracking specific individuals.
Now, new documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (via TechCrunch) throw more gasoline onto the fire. The ACLU says the documents — obtained through an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit — reveal a staggering amount of tracking.