Ways the Government Watches You

Geolocation tracking on cellphones.Credit: TechNewsDaily

GPS on a smartphone is one of life’s greatest inventions — in the palm of your hand, you can get directions from Point A to Point B, or let friends know your current location.

But that same GPS also lets law enforcement officials know where you are. The American Civil Liberties Union has requested information from 31 states for details about how law enforcement uses cellphone location data and how frequently it is gathered. The federal government has also admitted that it has the authority to track citizens using cellphone data.