Homeland Security Records Show 'Shocking' Use of Phone Data, ACLU Says (politico.com) 47
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The Trump administration's immigration enforcers used mobile location data to track people's movements on a larger scale than previously known, according to documents that raise new questions about federal agencies' efforts to get around restrictions on warrantless searches. The data, harvested from apps on hundreds of millions of phones, allowed the Department of Homeland Security to obtain data on more than 336,000 location data points across North America, the documents show. Those data points may reference only a small portion of the information that CBP has obtained.
These data points came from all over the continent, including in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Denver, Toronto and Mexico City. This location data use has continued into the Biden administration, as Customs and Border Protection renewed a contract for $20,000 into September 2021, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed another contract in November 2021 that lasts until June 2023. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the records from DHS through a lawsuit it filed in 2020. It provided the documents to POLITICO and separately released them to the public on Monday.
The documents highlight conversations and contracts between federal agencies and the surveillance companies Babel Street and Venntel. Venntel alone boasts that its database includes location information from more than 250 million devices. The documents also show agency staff having internal conversations about privacy concerns on using phone location data. In just three days in 2018, the documents show that the CBP collected data from more than 113,000 locations from phones in the Southwestern United States -- equivalent to more than 26 data points per minute -- without obtaining a warrant. The documents highlight the massive scale of location data that government agencies including CBP and ICE received, and how the agencies sought to take advantage of the mobile advertising industry's treasure trove of data. "It was definitely a shocking amount," said Shreya Tewari, the Brennan fellow for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. "It was a really detailed picture of how they can zero in on not only a specific geographic area, but also a time period, and how much they're collecting and how quickly."
These data points came from all over the continent, including in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Denver, Toronto and Mexico City. This location data use has continued into the Biden administration, as Customs and Border Protection renewed a contract for $20,000 into September 2021, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed another contract in November 2021 that lasts until June 2023. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the records from DHS through a lawsuit it filed in 2020. It provided the documents to POLITICO and separately released them to the public on Monday.
The documents highlight conversations and contracts between federal agencies and the surveillance companies Babel Street and Venntel. Venntel alone boasts that its database includes location information from more than 250 million devices. The documents also show agency staff having internal conversations about privacy concerns on using phone location data. In just three days in 2018, the documents show that the CBP collected data from more than 113,000 locations from phones in the Southwestern United States -- equivalent to more than 26 data points per minute -- without obtaining a warrant. The documents highlight the massive scale of location data that government agencies including CBP and ICE received, and how the agencies sought to take advantage of the mobile advertising industry's treasure trove of data. "It was definitely a shocking amount," said Shreya Tewari, the Brennan fellow for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. "It was a really detailed picture of how they can zero in on not only a specific geographic area, but also a time period, and how much they're collecting and how quickly."
Solution? (Score:5, Insightful)
Start. Tracking. Them.
No, not stalking them. We should just collectively start assembling data points on every member on Congress. After all, if it's freely available...
(I am simply wondering how complete a picture one could paint using nothing but publicly available data...)
Re: Solution? (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's inspirational that Orwell didn't realize the cameras could point both ways.
It's frightening to see that, unlike Orwell, people don't realize the government has more cameras and resources and can use them to make sure people don't point their cameras at them.
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It amazes me that most people just leave the GPS location data setting to 'ON' most of the time. I turn it on when I need it and then back off again, sure they can track you by tower connections but it's a lot more work and a lot less exact. A lot of apps insist on having it turned on during installation so I'll enable it for a few minutes, and then turn it off when installation is finished. I've only encountered one that wouldn't work with it turned off, and uninstalled that.
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Any app that requires GPS tracking for whatever reason doesn't get installed. Good riddance. No, you do not need GPS tracking.
Re: Shocking how? (Score:2)
Bluetooth works. Bluetooth scans for nearby devices not (because scanned data could be used to geolocate you). I leave location off most of the time and my BT devices work just great.
Re: Shocking how? (Score:2)
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GPS isn't the only way to determine location. In fact most of the time your phone doesn't bother powering the GPS module up, it just uses nearby cell towers, wifi signals and bluetooth beacons. That data is available for free energy-wise, because those radios are powered up anyway so that you can receive calls and notifications.
So turning GPS off does very little really. Location data is a bit less accurate sometimes, that's about it. You can turn location services off entirely, or just block individual app
Re: Shocking how? (Score:3)
GPS does not need to be enabled to track a phone down to a cell sector. The basestation data alone takes care of that. In a dense area like a city cells are fairly small, as well.
It's almost as if (Score:5, Insightful)
You know if you'd stop voting for people who support coal barrons and the fossil fuel industry and start voting for people who want real energy Independence in the form of wind and solar we could stop screwing with the Middle East and then they'd stop screwing with us. It's not that they hate our way of life or some bullshit it's that we keep sending in the CIA to overthrow their governments. And if that doesn't work we just send the whole blasted military.
Of course that does mean you're going to have to vote for really boring candidates whose rallies or dull as fuck. Competent administrators don't put on a good show.
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To be fair, many of the Jan. 6th participants were arrested as a result of their posts on social media.
No tracking was necessary.
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Exactly. We must put a stop to secret gov't police tracking every step we take, where we've been, who we've associated with, etc.
Vote for Trump and Trump endorsed candidates whenever possible!
-- Sent from my January 6th prison cell.
You forgot the /sarcasm tag.
Stop saying "administration." (Score:1, Insightful)
If you can't even get this distinction right after literally watching the psychopath try to ignore an election and violently overthrow the Constitution, what are you even doing pretending to criticize him?
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CBP doesn't need warrants.
They are the most broadly enabled organization in the United States-- they have warrantless powers over about 80% of the US population. If you live within 100 miles of the ocean or an international border, they have the right to seize and inspect, without warrant, any electronic devices you may or may not own, and they do not require a reason.
If you live within 25 miles of the coast or an international border, they can enter your private property, again, without a warrant.
This is
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You keep using that word, I do not think you understand what it means [thefederalist.com] But yeah Robinette totally got 81 million votes, lost all but one of 20 bellwether counties, yet won the presidency while losing both Ohio and Florida something that had not been done since Nixon lost to Kennedy.
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And yet, still no evidence of voter fraud. And that's according to Chump's own administration.
So, technicality: A number of states (including Republican controlled ones) altered their procedures in response to Covid.
But reality: Trump still lost. And he knew he lost. And defending his claim that he actually won is probably sedition.
So much for lawsuits (Score:1)
EFF won a case against spying on Americans, Proof it did not stop it from happening.
Data from apps but not base phone? (Score:2)
So if I buy an iPhone from Fruit, no extra apps from service provider or elsewhere, is that enough for tracking from the 3rd parties? I.e. they buy the data from Fruit or Tmobile too?
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Of course they do, in fact they may not even have to pay for it if a radio spectrum auction is pending and they want some brownie points.
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Is anyone surprised by this? (Score:3)
When a capability exists, it will be exercised, especially if it can be used surreptitiously with virtually no risk of discovery. As long as all of us are willing to carry around phones that function as government monitoring devices we will be vulnerable to this sort of abuse.
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And that is the sad truth. The only way around this is making the tracking a criminal act with anybody (especially government employees) doing it going to prison. Of course, with the love for secret agencies that the US (and other states on the way into totalitarianism or already arrived there) have, there is zero chance for that. And as long as there is no personal risk, the usual assholes will keep trying to establish whatever capabilities they can.
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phones that function as government monitoring devices
It's worse than that. The data being used in this case is compiled by a private data broker, from data sold to it by 3rd party apps you install on your phone. It's not just available to the government, it's available to anyone who can afford to pay for it. Not only that, it's being used to allow the government to bypass the need for a warrant since they can just buy it from a public source.
The collection, much less selling, of location data by these apps should be made illegal. It won't be, but it shoul
Crime (Score:2)
Yet somehow crime has only gone up.
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Such a surprise, isn't it?
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Have you got any numbers to go with your bold statement?
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Shocking? (Score:3)
People wearing a camera with a microphone and GPS wherever they go and it still 'shocks' people if that gets used to spy on them?
Illegal aliens (Score:2)
Re: Illegal aliens (Score:2)