How is getting a push notification any better at tracking someone than the actual gps and tower data that their phone is CONSTANTLY sending out to their cell providers?
Seems really overblown, like most people hearing this assume it's including contents of the notifications but it doesn't, and if law enforcement wants to put a suspect at a crime scene, they can just get the data from T-Mobile, if it gets to the point they're asking Google or Apple for info, id be much more concerned about all the data and emails stored on the cloud, which they already have no problems giving out.
Am I missing something? What can law enforcement gain from push notification data that they can't get with data from the cell provider already or the wealth of other data collected by Gmail, maps, Uber, etc, which is way more useful than anything a push notification would contain.
Not defending the practice of course, I don't get push notifications because I don't have Google apps installed on my grapheneOS phone, but I'm pretty sure T-Mobile knows my location just as well.
Remember that "average Joe" is not actually signals only focus, it's average journalist/ whistleblower/protestor living under a hostile government that may target them and their associates for what the rest of us "average joes" might consider basic free speech.
So a scenario might be, people use signal in Iran to arrange a mass protest on a specific day, word gets out and some of the organizers are arrested and pressured to give up their companions... They cooperate by unlocking phones, but police have no idea who the lead organizer "RndoUsr.40" is and the people arrested never met face to face so no amount of pressure would get them the organizers real ID
And yeah, for us average joes it's good for aquaintences and because names are easier to remember so it's handy.