Below is Sprint’s statement on its policy on allowing law enforcement to access customer GPS data:
The “8 million” figure has been unfortunately mischaracterized and it does not represent the number of customers whose location information was provided to law enforcement, nor does it represent the instances or cases in which law enforcement contacted Sprint seeking customer location information.
Instead, the figure represents the number of individual automated requests, or “pings”, for specific location information, made to the Sprint network as part of a series of law enforcement investigations and public safety assistance requests during the past year. The critical point is that a single case or investigation may generate thousands of individual requests to the network as the law enforcement or public safety agency attempts to track or locate an individual over the course of days or weeks.
As a result, the 8 million automated requests or pings were generated by thousands (NOT millions) of instances in which law enforcement or public safety agencies sought customer location information. Several thousand instances over the course of a year should not be shocking given that Sprint has more than 47 million customers and requests from law enforcement and public safety agencies are due to a variety of circumstances: exigent or emergency situations (missing person cases), criminal investigations, or cases where a Sprint customer consents to sharing location information (car is stolen and owner realizes his phone is in the car so he allows law enforcement to track his phone.)
Also, responding to public safety or law enforcements requests is not unique to Sprint, nor is it a revelation. It’s extremely unfortunate that the original blogger mischaracterized the “8 million” figure without any attempt to verify it.
Sprint requires a valid legal request appropriate for the circumstances before releasing any information; in all cases, Sprint complies with applicable state and federal laws.
