Powel's city government quietly signed on with Placer Labs' Placer.ai earlier this winter, locking in a two-year subscription that gives economic-development staff access to aggregated cell-phone movement data. The city has not created an internal policy explaining how that information will be used, stored, or shared, and that lack of guardrails has unnerved residents and watchdogs. A taxpayer demand letter and a wave of public questions have since yanked the purchase out of the fine print and into the local spotlight.
What Powell signed up for
According to city meeting materials, Powell passed Resolution 2026-06 on Jan. 20 authorizing an order form with Placer Labs Inc. The packet lists $15,000 for the first year and $16,000 for the second, a roughly $31,000 commitment in total. Economic Development staff are identified as the primary users, and the agreement can be terminated with short notice if second-year funding is not available. The full resolution and order form are detailed in the publicly posted City of Powell meeting packet.
Why residents are worried
As reported by WBNS, local taxpayer Kevin Casey filed a demand letter seeking injunctive relief after discovering Powell had provided access to its Placer.ai account to a private operator. The letter warns that if the city does not respond within 30 days, a lawsuit could follow.
Neighbors told the station they were surprised and uneasy, with one resident reacting, "I did not know that; it's kind of scary." The same report notes that nearby Dublin began using Placer.ai in 2023 at about $25,000 a year. The controversy has fueled broader debate over whether cities are keeping up with the privacy implications of powerful third-party data tools.
What Placer.ai says
Placer.ai's privacy policy describes its Platform Services as relying on anonymized, aggregated location datasets. It explains that the company receives information from third-party apps and services and provides civic customers with analytics rather than direct personal identifiers. At the same time, the policy cautions that no security measure is perfect. The company's approach to data collection and consumer requests is outlined in Placer.ai's privacy policy.
Other cities are doing the same
Powell is not alone in turning to Placer.ai. Toledo authorized an annual subscription for visitation data in 2023, and Muskegon recently reviewed amendments to its own Placer.ai order form as part of routine economic-development planning. Those local records show cities often use the platform to measure event attendance, park use, and commercial foot traffic to support grant applications and business recruitment efforts. The trend is documented in Toledo council records and city materials from Muskegon.
Legal questions
Casey, an attorney and taxpayer, told 10TV that simply pointing to a vendor's terms "is not a privacy policy." His demand letter asks a court to step in to restrict sharing or secondary access to the data. The station reported that Powell's law director had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
If the city does not meet the letter's deadline, the dispute could move into litigation, a test of how municipal purchasing decisions intersect with modern expectations for data privacy.
How to protect your location
Residents who want to limit the amount of location information that reaches data brokers can tighten their phone settings. On iPhones, users can go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services to turn off global location sharing or restrict access for specific apps. Privacy experts also recommend reviewing app permissions and disabling "precise location" where it is not necessary. For step-by-step instructions, see Apple Support.
What comes next
Powell officials have framed Placer.ai as a planning and economic-development tool. The order form includes a short termination window if the city cannot fund the second year. The meeting materials highlight uses such as retail recruitment and identifying where residents travel outside the city for goods and services, presenting the platform as an analytical aid for staff. Those implementation details and termination terms appear in the public City of Powell meeting packet.
