If An App Can Know Your Location – So Can The Police

One of the most unprecedented pieces of technology that we use these days is the GPS hardware found within your mobile phones. Being able to track and find information based on your location means that finding the nearest shop, cinema or toilets are just a button press away. With so many apps on your phone, how many companies know your location every day? According to a recent ruling, you can add another name to the list of groups that know your locations every day, the Police.

The ruling comes from the US’ fourth circuit court of appeals, stating that if a company has already got your phones location their request to get your information doesn’t warrant a search and therefore doesn’t need a warrant. The ruling is based on the Judges opinion that if you volunteer your information to a company means you’ve given “reasonable exception of privacy”.

The challenge could go higher to the Supreme Court with people arguing that just because you’ve said yes to one person, doesn’t mean you’d have said yes to everyone. With everything from calls to logging into social media giving some form of locational data, do you agree that your full location should be disclosed just because you said yes to one person?