Privacy advocates gained access to a powerful tool bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies that can track smartphone locations around the world. Abortion clinics, places of worship, and individual people can all be monitored without a warrant.

Privacy advocates got access to Locate X, a phone tracking tool which multiple U.S. agencies have bought access to, and showed me and other journalists exactly what it was capable of. Tracking a phone from one state to another to an abortion clinic. Multiple places of worship. A school. Following a likely juror to a residence. And all of this tracking is possible without a warrant, and instead just a few clicks of a mouse.

  • XeroxCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    9 days ago

    You can answer this yourself. Get rid of your phone and see. If you beleive it’s not a necessity, don’t say “yeah I could do these alternative things to get by”. Actually do it. I hope you’re not job-shopping

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      Yes, the impact on quality of life is just so significant that it’s a handicap to normal daily lives.

    • LunchMoneyThief@links.hackliberty.orgEnglish
      32·
      8 days ago

      The above being a rhetorical question, I just wanted to take a temperature of the room.

      I have lived without a phone pretty much all my adult life. The experiment for me would be to get a phone and see what changes. In that way, I have answered it for myself and the answer is a clear “you don’t need a phone”.