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To Catch A Robber, The FBI Attempted An Unprecedented Grab For Google Location Data (forbes.com)
Back in March, as it investigated a spate of armed robberies across Portland, Maine, the FBI made an astonishing, unprecedented request of Google, Forbes reports. The feds wanted the tech giant to find all users of its services who'd been within the vicinity of at least two of nine of those robberies. They limited the search to within 30-minute timeframes around when the crimes were committed. But the request covered a total space of 45 hectares and could've included anyone with an Android or iPhone using Google's tools, not just the suspect. From a report: The FBI then demanded a lot of personal information on affected users, including their full names and addresses, as well as their Google account activity. The feds also wanted all affected users' historical locations. According to court records, while Google didn't provide the information, the cops still found their suspect in the end. Outside of concerns around government overreach, the FBI's remarkable attempt to force Google to assist in its investigation will likely worry all who were disturbed by an Associated Press investigation published on Monday that claimed Google continued to track people even when they turned location features off. The court warrants unearthed by Forbes indicate some at the FBI believe they have a right to that location data too, even if it belongs to innocents who might be unwittingly caught up in invasive government surveillance. And the government feels such fishing expeditions are permissable; it issued the warrant on Google without knowing whether or not the suspect used an Android device or any of the company services at all.
Google does this kind of profiling for its commercial customers (advertisers) all the time. The only difference is that they don't share the identity of the user with the advertiser, but they know who it is. The person gave up this privacy willingly. If Google wants to retain and monetize this data, they (and you) should not be surprised when law enforcement wants to use it too. A court order should take precedence over Google's privacy policy, otherwise Google is above the law. This is why privacy policies are pretty much fiction. They are essentially unenforceable. What is your recourse if it is broken? What are the damages? They can't refund your money or anything. They won't go to jail. They're too big for you to successfully sue them. Law enforcement must have a legal way to access the records for the legal system to function. That the modern internet economy is built upon this fiction doesn't make it less of a fiction.