{"id":46571,"date":"2022-02-15T18:16:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/location-tracking"},"modified":"2025-06-17T16:51:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T20:51:21","slug":"location-tracking","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/privacy-technology\/location-tracking","title":{"rendered":"Location Tracking"},"parent":46641,"menu_order":1,"template":"","class_list":["post-46571","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210810,"intro":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","what-you-need-to-know":null,"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":null},"featured-stories":null,"latest-stories":null,"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"Law enforcement is taking advantage of outdated privacy laws to track Americans like never before. New technologies can record your every movement, revealing detailed information about how you choose to live your life. Without the right protections in place, the government can gain access to this information\u2014and your private life\u2014with disturbing ease.\r\n\r\nAs long as it is turned on, your mobile phone registers its position with cell towers every few minutes, whether or not the phone is in use. Since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cell-phone-location-tracking-request-response-cell-phone-company-data-retention-chart\">mobile carriers are retaining location data<\/a> on their customers, government officials\u2014often without a warrant from a judge\u2014can obtain detailed personal information about you by accessing your location history from your cell phone company. In tandem with information from other location-tracking technologies (like automatic license plate readers), this information can tell the government an enormous deal about you, ranging from which friends you\u2019re seeing to where you go to the doctor to how often you go to church.\r\n\r\nFreedom from unreasonable government snooping has always been a foundation of liberty in America. Through coordinated open-government laws like the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU has uncovered the location-tracking policies and practices of hundreds of state and local police departments. We have also litigated in courts across the country to advocate for a warrant requirement for historical and real-time location information and lobbied in the U.S. Congress for the passage of the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act."},"actions":"","drupal-id":105,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Location Tracking | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/privacy-technology\/location-tracking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T20:51:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/privacy-technology\/location-tracking\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/privacy-technology\/location-tracking\",\"name\":\"Location Tracking | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-15T23:16:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T20:51:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/privacy-technology\/location-tracking\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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