When you setup your new phone, you might be prompted to enable location tracking. This isn’t so much that companies care where you are all the time, but more so because some apps will need your location for it to work, like Google Maps, Waze, Foursquare, public transportation applications, and more.
These options can be changed anytime, meaning that if you were to disable tracking, you are not giving those companies the right to track your location, but apparently that doesn’t matter. According to an argument presented by the prosecution for the State of Maryland in an ongoing case, it seems that the simple act of turning your phone on means you consent to being tracked.
Basically back in 2014, Baltimore Police obtained a warrant for a suspect who was wanted for attempted murder. In order to find him, the police used a Hailstorm (some kind of Stingray) to locate him, despite the fact that they did not have a warrant in order to do so. Because of this, the judge presiding over the case found that the police had violated the suspect’s Fourth Amendment right and granted the defense the right to suppress the evidence collected as a result of using the Hailstorm.
However as we pointed out above, this is where the state prosecution claimed that turning the phone on was the suspect’s way of consenting to being tracked. The argument is that because all phones have an on/off switch, turning the phone on means that signals are being sent to and from cell towers, meaning that it was fair game as far as they were concerned.
No doubt this would set a rather disturbing precedent if it were to be allowed, but what do you guys think?