Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police | NYT

On a related note, see We’re Not Going to Take It Anymore | NYT (Kara Swisher revisits Scott "“You have zero privacy anyway,” he said. “Get over it!” McNealy)

"The technique illustrates a phenomenon privacy advocates have long referred to as the “if you build it, they will come” principle — anytime a technology company creates a system that could be used in surveillance, law enforcement inevitably comes knocking. Sensorvault, according to Google employees, includes detailed location records involving at least hundreds of millions of devices worldwide and dating back nearly a decade.

The new orders, sometimes called “geofence” warrants, specify an area and a time period, and Google gathers information from Sensorvault about the devices that were there. It labels them with anonymous ID numbers, and detectives look at locations and movement patterns to see if any appear relevant to the crime. Once they narrow the field to a few devices they think belong to suspects or witnesses, Google reveals the users’ names and other information."

Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police | NYT