Google location data turned a random biker into a burglary suspect

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Florida man who used a fitness app to track his bike rides found himself a suspect in a burglary when police used a geofence warrant to collect data from nearby devices, an NBC News investigation finds. Zachary McCoy had never been in the home where the burglary occurred, but by leaving his location settings on for the RunKeeper app, he unwittingly provided information about his whereabouts to Google, which placed him at the scene of the crime.

Since McCoy had biked past the house where the burglary took place three times on the day of the alleged crime — part of his usual route through the neighborhood — he was deemed a suspect. NBC News says Google’s legal investigations team contacted McCoy in January, notifying him that Gainesville…

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