Gov’t spying on Americans?
It’s a case of the United States ( US) government’s left hand prying into what the right is doing — all in a bid to check on possible privacy violations committed against Americans. Or is it? The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched an inspector general investigation over the reported warrantless use by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of phone-locating technology to track down individuals.
CBP’s deployment of the commercial smartphone location data tracker was exposed during an inquiry by a group of Democratic senators, including Ron Wyden of Oregon and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Wyden and Warren said that CBP admitted in a letter that it spent $500,000 to gain access to a commercial database containing “location data mined from applications on millions of Americans’ mobile phones.”
“If federal agencies are tracking American citizens without warrants, the public deserves answers and accountability,” Wyden said.
“I won’t accept anything less than a thorough and swif t inspector general investigation that sheds light on CBP’s phone location data surveillance program,” he added.
Senators seek probe of border control agency over phone data tracking.
CBP officials confirmed they paid money to Venntel, a government contractor, to track phones without getting warrants, an illegal act in America.
While still unclear how it operates, Venntel seemed able to provide its clients information based on “100- percent commercially available data” sourced from mobile advertising.
DHS inspector general Joseph V.
Cuffari revealed that their investigation will determine if the CBP, which is overseen by the department, has “developed, updated and adhered to policies related to cell-phone surveillance devices.”
Still, Cuffari noted that the “use and protection of open-source intelligence” by DHS, including information provided by the public via cellular devices like geotagged photos, social media status updates and location check-ins.
DHS itself recently came under fire for its “open source intelligence reports” on members of the press.
In a letter noting receipt of the request for an investigation, Cuffari did not indicate an estimated timeline on the audit his office will conduct.