Nearly every American regularly uses a pocket-sized supercomputer to store sensitive information, one that tracks our every movement. Some have suggested that the conveniences of cellphones come with an inevitable trade-off of less privacy, but one state has profoundly disagreed, passing a new data privacy law that sets an example for other states to follow.

Timothy Carpenter’s story demonstrates why elected officials need to step forward to protect privacy. In 2011, the FBI obtained several months’ worth of his cellphone location records, without a warrant, after suspecting that he was involved in criminal activity. These records revealed nearly 13,000 locations he had visited, providing them with sensitive information Carpenter considered private.