What is Fog Reveal? Police use new app to track people without a warrant

[mountaineer]

What is Fog Reveal? Police use new app to track people without a warrant
New tool shows where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit
By Anne Toomey McKenna
Published October 18, 2022 4:00AM (EDT)

Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless surveillance of individuals, groups and places: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal.

The tool enables law enforcement officers to see "patterns of life" – where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit. The tool's maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from over 250 million U.S. mobile devices.

Fog Reveal came to light when the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit that advocates for online civil liberties, was investigating location data brokers and uncovered the program through a Freedom of Information Act request. EFF's investigation found that Fog Reveal enables law enforcement and private companies to identify and track people and monitor specific places and events, like rallies, protests, places of worship and health care clinics. The Associated Press found that nearly two dozen government agencies across the country have contracted with Fog Data Science to use the tool.

Government use of Fog Reveal highlights a problematic difference between data privacy law and electronic surveillance law in the U.S. It is a difference that creates a sort of loophole, permitting enormous quantities of personal data to be collected, aggregated and used in ways that are not transparent to most persons.  ...

Fog Reveal is something else entirely. The tool – made possible by smart device technology and that difference between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections – allows domestic law enforcement and private entities to buy access to compiled data about most U.S. mobile phones, including location data. It enables tracking and monitoring of people on a massive scale without court oversight or public transparency. The company has made few public comments, but details of its technology have come out through the referenced EFF and AP investigations.

Fog Reveal's data

Every smartphone has an advertising ID – a series of numbers that uniquely identifies the device. Supposedly, advertising IDs are anonymous and not linked directly to the subscriber's name. In reality, that may not be the case.

Private companies and apps harness smartphones' GPS capabilities, which provide detailed location data, and advertising IDs, so that wherever a smartphone goes and any time a user downloads an app or visits a website, it creates a trail.  ...

Salon

The writer seems most concerned that anti-abortion state officials will use this to track women crossing state lines blahblahblah, but of course there are much broader constitutional implications.

[roamer_1]

Heehee...

Google sends me a 'where you've been this month' thing by email - Seriously... They ain't even hiding that they're tracking you.

It's funny though... because it seldom shows anyplace but my cabin in town. 

Go ahead and see how that tracking works, bud, eh?

What would be a gas is a way to phantom your phone... Make it show up where you ain't... Or many places at once... That would blow their whole show.

[Cyber Liberty]

Heehee...

Google sends me a 'where you've been this month' thing by email - Seriously... They ain't even hiding that they're tracking you.

It's funny though... because it seldom shows anyplace but my cabin in town. 

Go ahead and see how that tracking works, bud, eh?

What would be a gas is a way to phantom your phone... Make it show up where you ain't... Or many places at once... That would blow their whole show.

I never get those...I just go from hone to the GOP Office to Walmart.

[mountaineer]

Google sends me a 'where you've been this month' thing by email - Seriously... They ain't even hiding that they're tracking you.

A friend of ours was not amused when his phone told him all the places he'd been, most notably the gun store and range. That's when he went with a Faraday bag (assuming that protects from the snooping).

I almost never have my little Tracfone on, except in the morning to see whether I received any texts. Even if they still are tracking, my travels are all rather boring - mostly physical therapy, church and the grocery store.

[roamer_1]

A friend of ours was not amused when his phone told him all the places he'd been, most notably the gun store and range. That's when he went with a Faraday bag (assuming that protects from the snooping).

I almost never have my little Tracfone on, except in the morning to see whether I received any texts. Even if they still are tracking, my travels are all rather boring - mostly physical therapy, church and the grocery store.

Several things seem to have worked...

First, when I set up my phone,which is a droid, I set it up with Samsung, and NOT google... So presumably Samsung has a better chance at it than Google does.

Secondly, my PIM stuff is set up with Microsoft in conjunction with Samsung... I do have a Google ID and email, but it is largely empty. The ONLY thing I cannot break in that phone of Google's is Maps. I cannot find a decent replacement method. So any time I use Google Maps to navigate, Google DOES know where I am at. and that does show up in their tracking. But generally I look up addys at home before I leave and refrain from navigation.

And lastly, I have a big ol leather biker's wallet that has a built in faraday cage... Unless I know someone is going to be calling that is where that phone is. Then I just pick up messages while I am at a access point... Which again, will show up on tracking as an individual point - but the travel between is missing. I just pop up there for a minute.

So I ain't saying I have em licked... But I am messin with it, sure enough... 

[roamer_1]

I never get those...I just go from hone to the GOP Office to Walmart.

One place my phone has never been active is up in the holler... I DID have it on there once to see if I have signal, which I do if I stand like a ballet dancer and hold my tongue just right in a very certain place... To know whether or not a cellular base station would work from there (which it likely will). But just that once.

[Fishrrman]

Haven't posted this in a while.

It's my text for a proposed Constitutional amendment.
Or... it could become part of a "Reconstituted Constitution", as I no longer believe the existing one to be adequate and requiring something of a re-write:
===========
Citizens protected by this Constitution possess an inalienable right to privacy in their persons, businesses, and homes, and while they are in public.

It shall be a violation of this Constitution for the United States or for the several States or for any private citizen or entity to violate or invade the individual privacy of citizens by use of physical, mechanical, digital or electronic means or by the use of devices on land, on water, below the ground, or from the air.

This protection shall extend to all lawful communications and acts by an individual citizen or between two or more citizens, including content that is spoken, written, or electronically transmitted. It shall extend to citizens regardless of their location, whether in private or in public.

The only exceptions will be as governed by the Fourth Amendment of this Constitution.
===========

[240B]

Get a burner phone. My real cell phone is like a land-line. To buy a burner phone use cash, at Walmart/Target. If that doesn't work, buy a gift card with cash and use that. Not perfect, but better than a credit card. This is why the government wants 'all digital' currency to get rid of cash purchases.

I leave my phone at home when I go out. According to the FBI/NSA, I have been at home every minute of every day for years. "My God! This guy doesn't even check his mail."

BTW, make sure the burner phone is disabled (not off, but physically disabled or shielded) before bringing it close to your real phone. If your burner phone and real phone are both enabled at the same time in the same place, they will be able to connect the two.