Your Phone's Location
Every claim in my post, with the source. Read it yourself.
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1
Connecticut banned selling your precise location.
Public Act 26-64, Sections 14 and 15, effective October 1, 2026: “No controller shall sell any consumer's precise geolocation data.” The same rule applies to third parties who resell it. “Precise” means within 1,750 feet.
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2
Selling to police counts as a sale.
The same law defines the buyer, a “third party,” as “a person, such as a public authority, agency or body.” (Section 12, amending CGS 42-515)
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3
Then comes the exception.
Section 16 (CGS 42-524) says nothing in the law restricts a seller's ability to “cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct or activity that the controller… reasonably and in good faith believes may violate” the law.
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4
Nothing happens to the buyer.
Connecticut's consumer privacy law doesn't apply to state agencies or towns. The penalties fall on the seller, and no rule keeps improperly bought data out of court.
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5
The plate reader law doesn't cover phones.
Public Act 26-14, Section 13, regulates license plate reader data: 21-day retention, limits on sharing. It doesn't address phone location data or data brokers.
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6
The tools exist.
Security researcher Joshua Michael documented police software that combines plate reader hits with phone location data bought from brokers. It can follow a device for 90 days starting from an email address or an advertising ID. This is his analysis of the company's code, and the company disputes some of his findings.
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7
Montana already fixed this.
Montana SB 282 (2025), Section 1: a government entity “may not purchase” precise geolocation data, pseudonymous data (including advertising IDs) and other sensitive data without a court-issued search warrant or investigative subpoena. Section 2: evidence obtained in violation “is not admissible.”
File a Connecticut bill that requires a warrant before any government agency buys, licenses or subscribes to location data, directly or through a vendor, and that keeps illegally obtained evidence out of court.
Found an error? Tell me and I'll fix it here, in public.