Comment by oneplane

Of course they do, if there's a way to get data without it being obviously illegal, it probably going to get collected. And I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of constructions like it either have a gag order or national security letter.

On the other hand, there is no universal one size fits all rule that makes society better. Especially because there are plenty of very different people, both good and bad, and no rule, however well-intentioned will work out great overall. Let's hope someone at some point does come up with a better solution.

In observation on why push messages: the same reason any other real-time communication is interesting, like calls, SMS, MMS, because that's enough bits being transceived, or enough of a cell location to find out where a device is, while not being long enough that you get some 'on the move' smear.