“Was it just data purchased from cell phone companies,”
Purchased from private companies. Of course, cellular providers are (allegedly) private companies. I think the numbers and geo data is all they’ll get without subpoenas, but that’s really all they need to find patterns of specific owners of devices.
Maybe big tech screwed itself this time.
After reading up a bit, I think the cell phone companies would require an warrant. They hold the data for about five years.
But these apps, we “yes it to death” when we down load them, giving up that data. The price we pay. Maybe it’s google maps.
So I’m leaning toward an app, harvesting location data of the ballot mules phone.
I hope these people get outed, by name.