Colorado is Tracking Your Location Using Metadata from Your Cell

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Denver, CO – Colorado is tracking your location and movement using metadata from your cell phone that the Colorado State Government receives from “data partners.”

Governor Jared Polis made the statement about the location tracking of citizens while answering a question at his press conference. He was asked about what data the government looked at before declaring a “Stay at Home” order.

You can listen to Polis answer the question at the press conference below.

If you cannot watch the video, we transcribed his response below.

We’re also looking at the different data that is available. Metadata, which means data through data partners [likely phone companies] that include things like, uh, people that are moving around with cell phones, and how much they are moving when people are pinged. Real-time traffic data the department of transportation is able to provide, so various sources of metadata, including some that have been reported on by The New York Times and others, some of which are available through subscriptions, that we are increasingly refining our ability to integrate into our state model to find out what the real impact is of these social distancing measures. But the bottom line is, I don’t have the comfort level that the existing, extreme measures that we’ve taken to date are enough to buy us the time we need to save lives in Colorado.

Governor Jared Polis

Orwellian surveillance

Firstly, the Colorado State Government under Governor Jared Polis is willing to spy on Coloradans. They are monitoring locations using cell phone metadata, and yes, this is spying.

Regardless of whether there is identifying information included in the metadata, this is a major problem. Citizens are not notified or given a specific opt-in or opt-out option here. In fact, we doubt the majority of Coloradans even know this kind of thing is happening.

Now, it is one thing for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to track traffic. They need this information to provide infrastructure for travel.

It is an entirely different thing for the government to spy on people’s locations using that little computer in your pocket.

Polis did not expand on how specific the data is, so really, we have no idea what information they have on citizens.

We are curious to know if the “state model to find out what the real impact is of these social distancing measures” will ever be released to the public. A transparent government should share this information with citizens.

More than likely, Polis will just declare victory when this whole crisis is over.

To put things in perspective, Polis is putting tens of thousands of people (or more) out of work, confining them to their homes, and now he admits to spying on their movements.

How much more Orwellian can things get in Colorado?

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27 thoughts on “Colorado is Tracking Your Location Using Metadata from Your Cell

    1. We shouldn’t have to Leave our phones at home.. Also if your car has a computer in it they can track them too… How about a smart watch? Your tablet? This is crap..

    2. Not the point it’s a violation of our civil rights and people like you are the exact reason were dealing everyday with lost rights and freedom. Willing to give up our right for the better of what. This helps no one but give more power to those who dont need it. Nazi America the time were living in and no one sees it started with 9/11

      1. I agree with you completely my friend and it is very troubling that so few realize it. This is not good. It has not been good and currently it is only getting worse.
        I have a question for you eventually here once they come out with there Vaccination and require people to recieve it in order to go back to work or kids to school or for anyone to fly. Will you willingly receive it?

  1. That’s exactly what I was thinking the whole time reading the article.
    Gov. Polio is a disease that is spreading through Colorado!

    1. My God you people are psychos. What is this website and why did it poop up on my Google news feed? Get a life you morons. Nobody cares about you enough to track your movements

  2. Courtesy of Judge Andrew Napolitano:
    “What is the nature of freedom? It is an unassailable natural claim against all others, including the government. Stated differently, it is your unconditional right to think as you wish, to say what you think, to publish what you say, to associate with whomever wishes to be with you no matter their number, to worship or not, to defend yourself, to own and use property as you see fit, to travel where you wish, to purchase from a willing seller, to be left alone.

    And to do all this without a government permission slip.

    These decrees — issued by those who have no legal authority to issue them, enforced by cops who hate what they are being made to do, destructive of the freedoms that our forbearers shed oceans of blood to preserve and crushing economic prosperity by violating the laws of supply and demand — should all be rejected by an outraged populace, and challenged in court.

    These challenges are best filed in federal courts, where those who have trampled our liberties will get no special quarter.
    Our rights come from our humanity, NOT from the government, foolish people can only sacrifice their own freedoms, not the freedoms of others.

    Thus, freedom can only be taken away when the government proves fault at a jury trial. This protection is called procedural due process, and it, too, is guaranteed in the Constitution.

    Of what value is a constitutional guarantee if it can be violated when people get sick? If it can, it is not a guarantee; it is a fraud. Stated differently, a constitutional guarantee is only as valuable and reliable as is the fidelity to the Constitution of those in whose hands we have reposed it for safekeeping.

    Because the folks in government, with very few exceptions, suffer from what St. Augustine called libido dominandi — the lust to dominate — when they are confronted with the age-old clash of personal liberty versus government force, they will nearly always come down on the side of force.

    How do they get away with this?

    By scaring the daylights out of us.

    (It) came about when the public was fearful of the unknown and trustful of the government’s bargain. But the safety offered for the liberty sacrificed (has) never come to pass.”

  3. BTW, the great citizens of Denver and a couple of other ‘BLUE’ cities in this State is perfectly fine with this situation. Don’t believe me, just ask em!!

  4. Well apparently you want to die and take no issue with the loss of loved ones to this virus.
    Perhaps you do not have children or elderly parents? Perhaps you have no healthy friends? Every one, healthy, old, young, are loosing this battle. Hospitals and the angels there that are putting their lives at risk to save your loved ones, if you have any. Consider the suffering before you worry about the secrecy of your location. Unless you have something to hide.

    1. No problem, mom. How about letting us all know where that daughter of yours goes to school? Unless you have nothing to hide, right?

    2. What a pathetic response. Your response indicates you think people are dropping dead all around you. Ben Franklin said, “He who would trade liberty for a little bit of security deserves neither liberty nor security.” Read 1984 or Brave New World and see where things can go.

  5. Everyone needs to chill out. Extreme times call for extreme measures. Perhaps you each do not feel the vulnerability that I feel.
    I have experienced this up close and personal. My daughters fiancée was in the ICU for 10 days, he has lost so much weight he is barely recognizable as the same person. His Father is still in the ICU on a ventilator. My daughter was quarantined for two weeks and unable to see her children, two girls 11 and 5 The 11 year is severely imniosuppressed (sic) that for her to succumb to the virus would be a death sentence. As a family, nothing is invasive,
    nothing is enough. So please please remember that perspective is vastly different for all of us. You can take up your arms when this has passed, unless you are grieving your own loss.

  6. They don’t really even need your cell in many places. Look up at your intersection lights. Do you see 4 cameras and a dome camera? The dome camera is a 4-way HD camera that takes pan photos up each street direction. The four fixed video cameras are plate readers that log your licence plate and time. They can map your car’s travel directly based on location and time.

  7. While I agree that there is a virus that needs to be contained. I don’t feel that our rights should be stripped from us in the process. People should have started to wake up years ago. Baby steps to taking away our rights through the much-needed pandemic to be able to control us. Do some research on what exactly is it hand here. How nice of the president to bail out all of his buddies and I think that we should be satisfied with this little pittance that’s going to be sent to us. This isn’t over, this will continue for the next 18 months to two years. It’s a test. The time for revolution is now. The problem is, Americans are too effing lazy to get off their asses and do anything about it. Or, they are too afraid to put themselves out there for fear that they will be either placed in internment or killed. You don’t think that’ll happen? Wait and see. Anyone that stands up for their rights or freedom is labeled a terrorist, hence the Patriot Act. The only way to control the masses is through a great pandemic and here we are.

  8. Does the Colorado Citizen Press store and use cookies on its website to track user data and sell that data to third parties?

  9. Hey Press, you do realize there were two ads embedded in the article that offered free cell phone tracking apps, don’t you? Also, the word is “transcribed” not “transposed”.

  10. A group in California is moving to recall their tyrant, Gavin Newsom. Anyone ready to take on Jared?

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