Police Uses Location Data From Mobile Phone Apps

Tagesschau

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German police authorities sometimes rely on the services of data dealers during investigations, as BR research shows. The LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern therefore used location data from smartphone apps. Experts consider this illegal.

Heise

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Smartphone apps collect location data for advertising purposes. Aggregated retailers sell these to interested parties – including apparently the German police.

JUNGE FREIHEIT

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The sale of location data is prohibited without explicit consent in the EU. Nevertheless, the LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, among other things, used the confidential information during its investigations. Therefore, an examination procedure is now under way against the authority. This article Surveillance State Investigations against LKA for illegal use of location data was launched publicly on JUNGE Freiheit.

pcwelt.de

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German police authorities have apparently used location data from various smartphone apps in the past. This was revealed by an investigation conducted by BR (Bayerischer Rundfunk) and the website Netzpolitik.org. The data was acquired through so-called data brokers, even though trading in user-related data is considered illegal in the EU. Police authorities from two German states, namely Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, have already confi…

netzpolitik.org

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In at least two federal states, the police have obtained data from data brokers, as researches by netzpolitik.org and BR show for the first time. With such data, mobile phones could be located precisely meters. Experts consider this to be illegal, a data protection authority has already turned on. Cell phones are located without judge retention – advertising data makes it possible. (symbol image)Specialists have already suspected it, now researc…