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US agencies using phone location data for immigration enforcement, report says:
The Trump administration has reportedly acquired access to a commercial database that tracks the movements of millions of cellphones in the US. The data is being used for immigration and border enforcement, according to sources and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The data is reportedly collected from apps for gaming, weather and shopping that ask users to grant them location access. The Journal's Friday report said the Department of Homeland Security uses the information to detect undocumented immigrants and people who may be entering the US illegally.
Separately, US gov't using phone location data to track migrants: Report:
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has purchased commercial databases and software that tracks millions of mobile phones and used the information to crack down on undocumented immigrants in the US, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday.
Citing sources familiar with the matter and documents it has seen, the WSJ reported that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has made arrests based on the data, which helped identify the movement and location of undocumented migrants.
[...]According to the report, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began purchasing location data back in 2017 from Venntel, a Virginia-based company, which declined to comment. The data is gathered through smartphone applications after users grant access to their locations.
The DHS and its agencies acknowledged buying access to the data, but did not discuss details about how they are using it in law-enforcement operations. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has said it has privacy protections in place and limits on how it uses location data. The agency says that it accesses only a small amount of the information, which is anonymised to protect the privacy of Americans.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:04AM (2 children)
Seems to me all they have to do is note where each phone crosses the border, via the normal location data. If it comes in at a legit port, and pauses in the usual way of someone waiting in line -- they can be presumed to have entered legally and can be ignored. If the phone crosses the border at any non-port location, it is obviously in the possession of an illegal entrant, and should be tracked.
Yeah, burner phones are a thing, but if a border jumper bothered to bring it along, they probably intend to call a contact, and there's your point to watch. Seems to me this will mainly nail drug cartel types.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:21AM (1 child)
That is an interesting take on things. I'm not sure how many people cross the border at non-standard locations while carrying a cell phone, but that would definitely make them stand out. It might even be what they're using already.
Unfortunately, this still falls into the problem of needing to track everyone since it's not the government doing the collection of data. They're just buying the results of the commercial entity collecting everything. If a company specifically collected only that data you called out and then sold it to the government it would be even clearer evidence that they were only using an intermediary to skirt the law.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:52AM
Good point, but it's not like every cellphone doesn't of necessity get tracked so long as it's powered on; we agree to that by using 'em. \
Probably this is just deduplication of costs and effort, since the cell carriers have to track their phones anyway (at least from tower to tower). But it is a bit grey around the edges, as you say.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.