Google urged to stop collecting phone location data before Roe vs. Wade reversal
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
Okay, but like, if you are a lawmaker - why not focus on making these digital dragnet warrants harder to get? Especially since law enforcement can still get the location data from cell phone providers.
Part of the point is the fact that the judiciary is being captured by right-wing nutjobs. Getting a warrant from a militant judge is not difficult, and if the system is rotten all the way to the Supreme Court, there will be no recourse.
Also, to get a law, you need to get it past the senate, which is also captured by right-wing nutjobs.
> Especially since law enforcement can still get the location data from cell phone providers.
Yes, that is another problem. And considering that the carriers are in bed with the right-wing nutjobs, good luck with solving it.
It is also why we should be much more careful than we generally are about what data exactly all these companies keep.
It also highlight the importance of a functional legislative branch in the American system. You need impeachment procedures to be possible when another branch goes rogue. Which is exactly why one obstructionist party is very unlikely to become constructive in the near future, unless something like a profound constitutional crisis or a civil war of some sort happens.
Delegating human rights to corprations is insane.
Unfortunately some of this is difficult to restrict in the face of the third-party doctrine - and I mean the very literal fact that _someone_ can see you going somewhere in public and compile a record of it. In effect you’re restricting _their_ right to free speech if you insist that _they_ can’t talk about what they witnessed in a public space (or a record was created automatically that would suggest that those real-world events occurred).
But some might consider a lack of bodily autonomy to be forced speech or action by the government on behalf of an entity that lacks personhood. So maybe the crux of the matter here is “you can’t make me”.
Why were they (Google) allowed to collect it in the first place and why wait until now to realise this?
Looks like these lawmakers finally received a 'wake up call' that privacy is important.