Users should probably be worried about the US Secret Service when it comes to their personal data, particularly location data. That’s because, according to recent reports, the service has been buying up access to location data from aggregators. And it’s been doing so in a way that explicitly bypasses due process. That leaves very little — if any — recourse or oversight for end-users.
In fact, the discovery of the contract appears to have been mostly circumstantial. Protocol reported on the Secret Service pouring millions into the Virgian company Babel Street back in March. The US Secret Service decision to track location data was only discovered following a Freedom of Information Act request. That was then published this month by Motherboard.
Specifically, the US Secret Service signed an approximately-$36,000 contract with the service Locate X. The service that’s previously been used by law enforcement to catch criminals. And, between 2017 and 2018, the Secret Service was also buying up that same data via Locate X. The deal was part of an already-$2-million social media monitoring package from Babel Street.
What data does this deliver and what’s the problem here?
Now, the underlying problem with this discovery is, of course, accountability. Locate X, like other products of a similar nature, is an aggregate service. In effect, the service pools data that’s „theoretically anonymous” from mobile applications. Those are the apps users are accessing on their smartphones every day. And this isn’t the first time these types of uses of that data have been called into question.
The aggregate data is, at least at the surface level, collected anonymously. It has traditionally been used by non-government agencies to locate and interact with users for marketing purposes. But it doesn’t necessarily remain anonymous. It’s often used specifically to target identified individual users. And it can be used to identify individual mobile users. So, it isn’t actually anonymous with proper analysis.
So it isn’t immediately clear precisely how that data was used. Or whether any individual users were identified and tracked beyond the scope of crimes. At least it’s not possible to know without oversight or accountability afforded by the usual warrant process. And that doesn’t just apply to the location data. That’s only one small piece — around 1.79-percent — of the $2-million tech services purchased.
How did the US Secret Service use the location data?
A former employee speaking under anonymity has reportedly indicated at least one use of all that location data. Namely, it was used to catch illegal credit card skimmers installed at gas pumps in 2018. But that the specifics of that, in terms of benefits to citizens and how much data had to be processed to find those skimmers isn’t apparent.
Probes have been launched into some of these services where they’ve been used to similar ends in the past. Particularly where they’ve worked with Homeland Security. There’s also a bill dubbed „The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale” that’s been proposed to make these types of purchases illegal. For now, Babel Street has not responded to questions from representatives with regard to the US government’s use of these services to spy on its citizens.
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com