… unless you give it away and the government buys it.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the information on a cellphone was too private. Law enforcement and government agencies couldn’t tap things like location data without a warrant. This wasn’t a problem for most law enforcement in the United States, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Control (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wanted more data. They could use this data to find undocumented immigrants and deport them or arrest them.
However, these organizations have taken advantage of a custom in the United States. If it’s illegal, throw more money at it and you’ll find a legal way to get what you want. ICE, CBP, and DHS have been buying up location data in droves. How can they do this? The same way anyone else who wants your location data does it.
Cellphone Privacy Upheld
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled on a case known as Carpenter V. United States. The U.S. government had obtained several months of Timothy Carpenter’s cellphone location records. Carpenter was convicted of crimes, but the claimed the government had violated his fourth amendment rights by tracking him without a warrant. He sued, and the Supreme Court agreed, the government couldn’t get your location data without a warrant. This means they couldn’t set up GPS nets, or just get everyone’s location history if they had been in a certain area. They needed a warrant to get your data.
If You Can’t Spy, Buy!
ICE, CBP, and DHS couldn’t spy on everyone they want to thanks to the U.S. Constitution. Pesky thing! However, there’s a way to sidestep it, at least for now. Rather than obtaining precise location directly from wireless carriers, they could instead go to any of the companies that sell this information, and buy it legally.
The fact is, many apps that use your location also track your location. Tap “Allow Location Access” while signing up so the app could get your zip code? They might not just take that location once. They collect it whenever you’re using the app, or sometimes even in the background. Many apps turn around and sell this information to third parties, who then sell it to advertising companies, companies building profiles, or anyone else. As it turns out, that “anyone else” includes the U.S. Government.
ICE has purchased over $190,000 worth of location data from a company called Venntel. CBP paid over $1 million for their location data. The organizations have admitted to using the data, but won’t say what they’re doing with the data, or who they’re targeting. However, it seems obvious that they’re tracking potentially undocumented immigrants. Judging on the number of times they’ve had false positives, it’s anyone’s guess on how they’re narrowing down their search parameters.
This Doesn’t Seem Right…
No, it’s really not. The government is still obtaining this private information without a search warrant, which would usually be required when purchasing this kind of information for anything other than marketing purposes. There could be a lawsuit in the future. If you want to protect yourself now, you could limit the number of apps that use your location data. You could also ensure that apps that don’t need access to your location in the background don’t have it. With recent versions of iOS and the latest version of Android, you can block always on location access. This will still give your data to third parties, who may still sell it to third parties, but it will limit their access to your location at any given time. To truly limit it, we’ll need legislation and court decisions to protect consumer privacy, but that’s years away, at best.
Sources:
- ACLU
- Marty Johnson, The Hill
- Amber Neely, AppleInsider