That requires a warrant (I'm very familiar with the process to request data from cell carriers). ALPR can be queried at any time because they are government owned cameras.

After Snowden and stuff like this, I assume if the government (at least federal) really wants it, they can procure it. Plus, the location data is probably saved so it’s just a matter of querying a specific phone number to see the whole history.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20696222/att-location-dat...

> The suit stems from recent investigations into how AT&T and other wireless carriers share the sensitive data. A New York Times article last year found that law enforcement has used the data to track phones without a court order. In another investigation, published earlier this year, Motherboard was able to pay a bounty hunter $300 to track the location of a phone using the data. Several lawmakers were quick to criticize the companies’ policies following the Motherboard report.

>Several lawmakers were quick to criticize the companies’ policies following the Motherboard report.

You'd think, being lawmakers, they might be able to think of a more effective method to stop the behavior.

But no, apparently nothing can be done. Move along, nothing to see here.

Privacy is a spectrum. The “they already have all my information” seems like avoidance of a complex topic. Just because some people hand over all of their information to social media apps doesn’t mean we should tolerate even more intrusions into our privacy.