ACLU: US Feds buying phone location data to surveil its citizens
It is no secret thatbig tech companies sell people’s location dataand device activity to various governments, data brokers, and advertisers. Although government agencies in many countries can legally access sensitive personal data through legal channels, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently shared documents that reveal rampant and unbridled surveillance in the US thatpotentially violate Fourth Amendment provisions. While US officials continue to justify their actions, theACLU is pushing for new legislation to close a loopholethat allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies easy access to personal information.
The ACLU obtained over6,000 previously unreleased recordsthrough its ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit (viaTechCrunch) that reveal eye-opening statistics about the extent of data collection by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The documents show federal expenditures from the three agencies used to purchase 336,000 smartphone-generated location points across North America. During three days in 2018, CBP secured nearly 114,000 location points in the US — around 26 location points tracked per minute. AWall Street Journalreport from 2020 shows the agencies used such data to locate and identify tax evaders and undocumented immigrants.
The bulk of the CBP’s data in 2018 came fromVenntel, a location data broker. Brokers like Venntel collect and sell personal information scraped off popular apps people use daily. The brokers usually sell aggregated data for targeted ad campaigns; however, US laws don’t prevent government departments from queueing up and buying such data. Although the aggregated information doesn’t contain personally identifying parameters like names and device IDs, authorities could link it to data from other (public) sources and profiles to deduce and obtain required details about individuals.
To plug this loophole into the system, the ACLU advocates for theFourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act. It would ax the government’s ability to purchase data and require agencies to obtain court orders if they wish to work with data brokers like Venntel. In theory, this would make seeking location data online comparable to searching a person’s house with a warrant.
Since the proposed act could make data collection an uphill task, authorities defend their actions by saying people voluntarily share their location data and that profiles are created using “100% opt-in” data. However, few smartphone users take the time to review the terms of service for Android and third-party apps and are unaware of intrusive data harvesting practices. Thankfully, the Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act, proposed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY), has bipartisan support.
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