Tin Foil Hat Time

[richlevy]

From here.

Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times

A blogger has released audio of Sprint's Electronic Surveillance Manager describing the carrier's cooperation with law enforcement. Among the revelations are that Sprint has so far filled over 8 million requests from LEOs for customer GPS data.

"[M]y major concern is the volume of requests. We have a lot of things that are automated but that's just scratching the surface. One of the things, like with our GPS tool. We turned it on the web interface for law enforcement about one year ago last month, and we just passed 8 million requests. So there is no way on earth my team could have handled 8 million requests from law enforcement, just for GPS alone. So the tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement. They also love that it is extremely inexpensive to operate and easy, so, just [because of] the sheer volume of requests they anticipate us automating other features, and I just don't know how we'll handle the millions and millions of requests that are going to come in."

Either there are millions and millions of criminals out there, or what we have here is the creepiest mission creep of all time.

While cops don't need a 'search warrant' for stuff like this, they usually still need a court order. Unless they opened up vending machines to churn these out at every courthouse, I can't see how they have the legal right to all of this.

Look on the bright side, Sprint customers, Santa will always know where you are, and probably if you've been naughty or nice.....