The location data is drawn from ordinary cellphone apps, including those for games, weather and e-commerce, for which the user has granted permission to log the phone's location.
The federal government's use of such data for law enforcement purposes hasn't previously been reported.
According to federal spending contracts, a division of DHS that creates experimental products began buying location data in 2017 from Venntel Inc. of Herndon, Va., a small company that shares several executives and patents with Gravy Analytics, a major player in the mobile-advertising world.
The agency says that it accesses only a small amount of the location data and that the data it does use is anonymized to protect the privacy of Americans.
Contracting records show the federal government is buying the location data from Venntel.
Venntel, in turn, purchased the information from private marketing companies that sell the location data of millions of cellphones to advertisers, people familiar with the matter say.
The federal government has essentially found a workaround by purchasing location data used by marketing firms rather than going to court on a case-by-case basis.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-agencies-use-cellphone-location-data-for-immigration-enforcement-11581078600
The federal government's use of such data for law enforcement purposes hasn't previously been reported.
According to federal spending contracts, a division of DHS that creates experimental products began buying location data in 2017 from Venntel Inc. of Herndon, Va., a small company that shares several executives and patents with Gravy Analytics, a major player in the mobile-advertising world.
The agency says that it accesses only a small amount of the location data and that the data it does use is anonymized to protect the privacy of Americans.
Contracting records show the federal government is buying the location data from Venntel.
Venntel, in turn, purchased the information from private marketing companies that sell the location data of millions of cellphones to advertisers, people familiar with the matter say.
The federal government has essentially found a workaround by purchasing location data used by marketing firms rather than going to court on a case-by-case basis.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-agencies-use-cellphone-location-data-for-immigration-enforcement-11581078600
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