Report: Police are increasingly asking Google for area-based user data to solve crimes

According to the story, Raleigh police presented the company with warrants not for information about specific suspects but rather data from all the mobile devices that were within a certain distance of the respective crime scenes at the time the crimes were committed … In one of its homicide cases, Raleigh police reported asked Google to provide unique data for anyone within a 17-acre area that includes both homes and businesses … According to a Raleigh Police Department spokesperson, the request account data was not limited to devices running Google’s Android operating system but rather all devices running any kind of location-enabled Google app.