Big Brother watching? Government agencies buying cell phone, internet data to track Americans
A growing partnership between third party data brokers and law enforcement agencies is raising alarm bells among civil liberties lawyers.
By Aaron Kliegman
Updated: September 28, 2022 - 11:05pm
In a little noted trend, law enforcement agencies at every level of government are increasingly buying data from private, third-party data brokers on Americans' phone and internet activities in order to track them, often without a warrant.
While proponents say this practice provides critical help for investigations, critics argue it poses a serious violation of civil liberties that needs to be addressed through legislation.
One of the latest revelations about this controversial public-private partnership came from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to "defending civil liberties in the digital world."
EFF recently obtained a trove of records through Freedom of Information Act requests on local and state police departments, as well as federal entities, purchasing a cellphone tracking tool that can monitor people's movements going back months in time.
The tool, Fog Reveal, is a product of the company Fog Data Science, which claims it has "billions" of data points about "over 250 million" devices that can be used to learn where people work, live, and associate.
Fog has past or ongoing contractual relationships with at least 18 local, state, and federal law enforcement clients, according to the documents reviewed by EEF.
Law enforcement has used the Fog data for a wide range of investigations, from the murder of a nurse in Arkansas to tracking the movements of a potential participant in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the Associated Press reported.
more
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/big-brother-watching-government-agencies-buying-cell-phone-internet
