Imagine if phone companies started selling our conversations without giving us a cent for the content.
Oh, my sweet, summer child. Maybe not phone calls (yet?), but they sell lots of other data they maintain about you. Location data, specifically, is a hot seller.
Is that where Google Maps gets traffic data from?
Yes and no. Google definitely uses location data to improve traffic details, but GPS has always been able to get some level of data about it, despite being mostly a one way system. I don't really remember the details, I'll try to dig out an article
Don't a lot of calls get recorded now anyway? (I'm just asking, I don't actually know)
Not without consent of at least one party to the call, no. Unlike most forms of invasive spying, that one is illegal.
Oh my sweet summer child.
Of course security agencies are allowed to make recordings, pretty broadly in the US.
Imagine if phone companies started selling our conversations without giving us a cent for the content.
Oh, my sweet, summer child. Maybe not phone calls (yet?), but they sell lots of other data they maintain about you. Location data, specifically, is a hot seller.
Is that where Google Maps gets traffic data from?
Yes and no. Google definitely uses location data to improve traffic details, but GPS has always been able to get some level of data about it, despite being mostly a one way system. I don't really remember the details, I'll try to dig out an article
Don't a lot of calls get recorded now anyway? (I'm just asking, I don't actually know)
Not without consent of at least one party to the call, no. Unlike most forms of invasive spying, that one is illegal.
Oh my sweet summer child.
Of course security agencies are allowed to make recordings, pretty broadly in the US.
https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/five-things-to-know-about-nsa-mass-surveillance-and-the-coming-fight-in-congress
I'm talking about businesses here. Government security agencies generally aren't bound by law or morality at all.