With customers’ consent, carriers sell the ability to acquire location data for marketing purposes like providing coupons when someone is near a business, or services like roadside assistance or bank fraud protection. But the contracts between the companies, including Securus, are “the legal equivalent of a pinky promise,” Mr. Wyden wrote. Courts are split on whether investigators need a warrant based on probable cause to acquire location data. But lawyers interviewed by The New York Times disagreed on whether location information that was not gathered during the course of a call had the same protections under the law. Other experts said the law should apply for any communications on a network, not just phone calls.

Source: New York Times May 11, 2018 00:37 UTC