Feds are tracking phone locations with data bought from brokers
by Corin Faife from The Verge - All Posts on (#61HQF)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been buying location data from third parties to sidestep the traditional warrant process, according to new documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The documents show that agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were able to purchase vast amounts of this location data without any judicial oversight and use it to track the movements of millions of cellphones within the US.
Generally, obtaining data about domestic communications directly from the providers (i.e., telecom companies) requires a warrant, which must be approved by a judge. But purchasing data from intermediary organizations is not subject to the same...