An investigation details local US law enforcement using the “Fog Reveal” phone tracking tool, at times without warrants, to search records from 250M devices
Associated Press :
Associated Press
Context & Ripple Effects
Police had already been using Google location warrants around crime scenes and, more broadly, reverse-location warrants to identify devices near an incident. Fog Reveal adds a separate route: local agencies can search a large preassembled location-records database, with the investigation finding that some searches occurred without warrants.
The report also belongs to a wider record of local agencies buying intrusive investigative tools, including phone-access software and devices documented through public-records requests. Its significance is the combination of broad device coverage and routine local-police access.
First-order effects
Local law-enforcement agencies using Fog Reveal can search location histories across its reported device records, sometimes without first obtaining a warrant.
People whose devices appear in Fog Reveal’s records can be drawn into location-based investigations without the provider-facing process used for reverse-location warrants.
Second-order effects
Fog Reveal gives police departments an alternative to requesting location data from companies through geofence-style warrants, reducing their dependence on those requests for some investigations.
Commercial tracking-data vendors gain a more consequential role in police investigations as agencies can procure searchable records rather than seek data case by case.
Third-order effects
If agencies continue to obtain broad location datasets through vendors, location surveillance will increasingly operate through parallel channels: court-supervised demands to technology companies and purchases of commercially assembled records.
The later reporting on another warrantless global phone-tracking tool indicates that scrutiny will extend beyond any one product to the rules governing government access to commercial location data.
The trend: Law-enforcement location investigations are moving from targeted requests for data toward vendor-operated databases that can be searched across large populations of devices.
You've never heard of Fog Data Science, but you should have. It's the company turning your cell phone's geolocation data into one of the most disturbing and wide-reaching surveillance systems ever used by police in the U.S. Read our investigation here. https://eff.org/....
Well, it happened: local cops have access to a tool called Fog Reveal that is based on location data harvested from ordinary smartphone apps. Cops using without warrants to see what devices in an area, track down individuals. Sold to cops for cheap. https://apnews.com/...
The data seemingly comes from Venntel, which provides the underlying dataset for various versions of smartphone location data tools. Same company that has ultimately provided data to CBP, ICE, etc https://apnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
You're spot on, @RonWyden. We cannot allow the government to use taxpayer dollars to buy Montanans' private information from woke corporations so they can bypass the Constitution. It's time to pass our commonsense bipartisan bill. https://twitter.com/...
Unfortunately, while it's outrageous that data brokers are selling location data to law-enforcement agencies, it's not surprising. This is exactly why I've been fighting to pass my bill to outlaw the government from using its credit card to end run the constitution. https://twitt…
“The tool is rarely, if ever, mentioned in court records, something that defense attorneys say makes it harder for them to properly defend their clients in cases in which the technology was used.” https://twitter.com/...
Also: any company that is selling user location to third parties should be banned from the Apple and Play app stores. It's amazing to me that this hasn't happened yet.
“It relies on advertising identification numbers, which Fog officials say are culled from popular cellphone apps such as Waze, Starbucks and hundreds of others that target ads based on a person's movements and interests, according to police emails...” https://twitter.com/...
“Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people's movements months back in time.” https://apnews.com/...
The problem here seems to be third-party advertising networks used by apps. Banning apps who use those networks still doesn't seem like a problem. (But will of course slam both Apple and Google into anti-trust issues, I imagine.) https://twitter.com/...
An obscure company, Fog Data Science, sells U.S. law agencies a cellphone tracking tool that's used to conduct warrantless searches. The company's tool, Fog Reveal, relies on location data collected by popular apps. @garanceburke @JHDearen https://apnews.com/...
As detailed in the report, Fog appears to be closely affiliated with Venntel, a location data broker that was caught selling similar data to large US federal agencies such as ICE, CBP, DEA and FBI. Fog might be a reseller focusing on smaller agencies. https://www.eff.org/...
According to the AP, Fog can basically give police the ability to look back in time to see what devices moved through a given area of interest. https://twitter.com/...
In our latest @AP investigation, @garanceburke and I dig into the privacy implications of a secret mobile device tracking tool being marketed to local police. Fog Reveal offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ https://apnews.com/...
This important AP investigation is worth your time. It goes into a secretive law enforcement tool called Fog Reveal, which uses ad data to produce location records for police: https://apnews.com/...
Great reporting by @EFF and @AP on the fact that said with location access sell it to data brokers who sell it to law enforcement. https://twitter.com/...
A data broker has been selling raw location data about individual people to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. This personal data is obtained by the broker via thousands of different apps on Android and iOS app stores. : @EFF https://www.eff.org/...
We're ready to unveil an investigation many have been working on for almost a year: A company that buys geolocation data from “250 million devices” and maps it for police to access without a warrant. 🚨 This gives local police (for a fee) the type of powers we fear the NSA has. ht…