The fundamental problem is accumulation and correlation of, for lack of a better term, “public private data”. Phone records, credit card statements, toll road

The fundamental problem is accumulation and correlation of, for lack of a better term, “public private data”. Phone records, credit card statements, toll road data, cell tower data, etc. is not “our” data, it’s the assorted companies data. It just happens to be directly related to private activities even if in public places. So authorities route around principles of privacy and such by engaging in entities who are not us. There’s nothing stopping authorities from talking to a neighbor. “Did you see anything? Were they home last night?” “Oh, you’re a delivery person, did you deliver something to that house? Do you know what it was? Can you describe who answered the door? What time was that?” Technically, that’s what the investigators are doing. No different from long standing investigation techniques. The problem is scope, volume, ease of access, detail of the data, and, most important, how long it’s kept. Wouldn’t surprise me if the phone companies have my travel history for the past several years. The concentration, resolution, and time span of the data makes the “Enemy of the State” movie more and more real. But it’s all using fundamental investigative techniques, policies, precedents and such that police services have been using for 100 years. It’s just cranked up way past 11. Those old court rulings and such, and concepts about what privacy means today need to change, or we’ll never be able to leave our houses.