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# Game Apps Secretly Sell Location Data to Police
- URL: https://adjacent.media/signals/game-apps-secretly-sell-location-data-to-police/
- Published: 2026-11-06T00:18:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-06T00:18:49.000Z
- Description: Law enforcement can now purchase granular location tracking on hundreds of millions of phones through Penlink’s Webloc technology by buying data that game publishers already collect through in-app ads—bypassing warrant requirements entirely.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #signal, theme-consumer, privacy, surveillance, attention economy

Source: [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-police-phone-tracking-advertising-tech/?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Law enforcement can now purchase granular location tracking on hundreds of millions of phones through Penlink's Webloc technology by buying data that game publishers already collect through in-app ads—bypassing warrant requirements entirely. This transforms casual mobile gaming into a mass surveillance infrastructure. The consent players give for "personalized advertising" becomes a backdoor for warrantless tracking by police. The mechanism exploits the legal gray zone between private data sales and government surveillance, making every ad-supported game a potential source of player movement data.