AT&T And T-Mobile Are Giving Cops Geofenced Location Data, Even Though It’s Inaccurate

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After Google made “geofence” data warrants on its users technically infeasible, feds are still making similar demands on telecoms giants, even if the location data is, by law enforcement’s own admission, often inaccurate.AT&T is one of a handful of American cellphone providers complying with controversial geofence warrants.

Local and federal police have also been using a lesser-known geofence warrant they call a “timing advance true call area search,” according to four warrant applications reviewed by. In those investigations, the government asked telecoms companies to search through records of phones connecting to cell towers near various crime scenes — two murders, a case of racist harassment and a robbery.

As a result, the court granted the cops permission to search a wider area for devices than they would’ve needed with a more precise method. “The estimated latitude and longitudes of a device on the AT&T network can be sourced from multiple inputs that may vary largely in their accuracy. Due to these estimations, a larger search area is being requested,” the officer wrote., the telecoms companies provided data. It’s unclear whether or not the information helped identify suspects.

Source: Tech Daily Report (techdailyreport.net)

 

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