#location privacy

Analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) have purchased databases of U.S. smartphone location data in recent years without a warrant, agency officials wrote in a memo to a top Senate Democrat.

DIA analysts have searched American location data five times in the past 2 1/2 years, according to the document released Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"Congress must end this lawless practice and require the government to get a warrant for our location data, regardless of its source."

The Secret Service paid for a product that gives the agency access to location data generated by ordinary apps installed on peoples' smartphones, an internal Secret Service document confirms.

Priya has moved near a train station and wants to use the city’s bike-share service for the final mile home. A QR code on a bicycle points to an app, but she would rather not add a card, precise location, and identity details before knowing how the service works. Her best first step is a short daytime trial near a staffed station, not an unfamiliar late-night ride when a failed unlock would leave…

Nina is preparing an older Android phone as a backup navigation device for a hiking group. She finds a utility that claims to organize offline map packages, remove duplicates, and move regions to an SD card. Those features could save space, but a storage manager may ask for broad file access while a mapping tool may request precise location. Nina needs to learn what the utility actually does…

A “best air quality apps” list can look authoritative while comparing little more than screenshots and star ratings. During wildfire smoke, dust, or urban pollution, users need to know where readings come from, how local they are, when they were updated, and what an alert actually means. A useful roundup should help readers select a dependable information tool without presenting an app as medical…

A roadside assistance app can be genuinely useful when a battery dies, a tire fails, or a car will not start. The difficult moment is also when people are most likely to install the first app in a search result, accept every permission, and enter a card without checking who operates the service. A safer approach is to set up and test the app before a real breakdown, while you still have time to…