US Agencies Using Phone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement, Report Says
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:
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.
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