[srmanuel]

I’ve always known that cell phone location data was being collected and used to solve crimes but I thought law enforcement needed a warrant to use it...

I understand if data is collected it will be abused by people in the government, it’s just to tempting to check out your spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, neighbor, etc....

If this group has all the data they claim and it sure looks like it, it’s worrying to me that this type of data is available to anyone who has the time and money to look for it...

[Rockingham]

Long-settled case law recognizes a business record exception to the Fourth Amendment's requirement for a warrant for a search and seizure of a person's home or person. The rationale is that business records are kept by a third party in the ordinary course of business and are not by their nature held in the search target's home or on their person.

Thus, as to business records, only statutes or regulations or the resistance of the holders of business records might provide privacy protection, not the Fourth Amendment. This is where Rand Paul and other rabid privacy advocates go off the rails, arguing a Fourth Amendment theory that has failed in the courts for decades.

Here is another thing to worry about: license plate scanners that detect stolen vehicles -- as well as vehicles without insurance and drivers with suspended license -- and even parole violators and errant husbands out on the prowl. Since the data is all generated by activity in public, there is no Fourth Amendment violation when the government collects or otherwise accesses it.