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> Also, by law wireless companies need to be able to ascertain at any time the approximate location of a customer’s phone in order to comply with emergency 911

• jessaustin 8y ago
  Sure, but the meetings held to decide how these things work are well-populated with people who find the concept of a "right to privacy" confusing.
  • bigiain 8y ago
    But they seem to be _super_ switched on about how much shareholder value they can create by monetising the data.
• rossdavidh 8y ago
  Well it would probably add a bit of time, and there are also cases like someone is kidnapped, the phone is still on them, but obviously we can't ask them to opt in right now. Not that any of that would justify having a system to sell your location, but presumably they thought they had it locked down so that consent was required (which it apparently was for XML version of the API).
• bigiain 8y ago
  Remember they need to know which cell(s) you're within range of to get inbound calls to you. It's not like the networks send a message out via every cell tower on the planet asking if $rolandog{'mobile_number'} is listening every time you get a call or text. Whenever your phone is switched on, it regularly contacts the tower it's got the strongest signal from and says "Hi, it's rolandog's phone here, if you get a call for me, this is where I'm hanging out! kthxbye"