I look forward to NSA serving an FAA 702 order on Jawbone to track a non-U.S. user. It would require that Jawbone perform a live intercept so FedGov agents can

I look forward to NSA serving an FAA 702 order on Jawbone to track a non-U.S. user. It would require that Jawbone perform a live intercept so FedGov agents can plant physical bugs or insert TURBINE-derived malware or attach a keystroke logger. The order would use existing legal authority to compel Jawbone to provide real-time data on the user’s precise geographical location and whether he or she is awake. Obviously if the target is at home and awake, the Feds would abort the black bag job. The Google Play store listing shows that the Up app wants access to precise (GPS) and approximate (network) location, so the lat/long available for NSA perusal with compulsory process is likely pretty detailed. And the marketing literature on the Jawbone site uses “always-connected” and “real-time” language, which is perfect if you're in the real-time surveillance business. The non-U.S. user targeted by FedGov may think he’s escaping surveillance because he’s using only local phone providers and local email providers. He’d be wrong; Jawbone is based in SF and subject to U.S. law… Another interesting use would be tracking physical movements of non-U.S. users and correlating them to see who’s meeting with whom; does Jawbone force SSL for its API usage? (The API web page only says “communication should be done over a secure channel,” not “must.”) I’m joking above, of course, and I have no reason to believe the NSA has done this for a non-U.S. citizen or the FBI has for domestic surveillance. My point is to suggest that folks here at startups think in advance about how to respond to legal process, how to encrypt data in transit, and how to store user data in a way that minimizes your legal exposure and protects your users’ privacy. Better to think about this early vs. after you get an early morning knock on the door with a very serious plainclothes guy with a badge serving you with some very serious papers demanding info. That happened to me in a different context years ago, but that’s a story for another time.