Page 2 - aruba-today-20220928

A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 28 september 2022
Senators push to reform police's cellphone tracking tools

By JASON DEAREN and GA- privacy advocates that it
RANCE BURKE violates the Fourth Amend-
Associated Press ment to the U.S. Constitu-
NEW YORK (AP) — Civil tion, which protects against
rights lawyers and Demo- unreasonable search and
cratic senators are pushing seizure.
for legislation that would Advocates on both sides
limit U.S. law enforcement of the aisle should be con-
agencies' ability to buy cell- cerned about unrestricted
phone tracking tools to fol- government use of Fog
low people's whereabouts, Reveal, said former Vir-
including back years in ginia Republican Rep. Bob
time, and sometimes with- Goodlatte, who previously
out a search warrant. served as U.S. House Judi-
Concerns about police use ciary Chairman.
of the tool known as "Fog "Fog Reveal is easily de-
Reveal" raised in an inves- anonymized tracking of
tigation by The Associated Americans' daily move-
Press published earlier this ments and location histo-
month also surfaced in a ries. Where we go can say
Federal Trade Commis- a lot about who we are,
sion hearing three weeks who we associate with,
ago. Police agencies have and even what we believe
been using the platform to or how we worship," said
search hundreds of billions Former police data analyst Davin Hall uses the Waze navigation app while driving through Greens- Goodlatte, who now works
of records gathered from boro, N.C., on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. as a senior policy advisor
250 million mobile devices, Associated Press to the Project for Privacy
and hoover up people's and Surveillance Account-
geolocation data to as- said Sen. Ed Markey, a Mas- company does not have easily be used to find where ability. "The current politi-
semble so-called "patterns sachusetts Democrat. access to people's per- a mobile device user lives, cal climate means that this
of life," according to thou- Panelists and members of sonal information, nor are which violates rules the technology could be used
sands of pages of records the public who took part in search warrants required. commission enforces. And against people left, right
about the company. the FTC hearing also raised The company refused to a bill introduced by Sen. and center. Everyone has
Sold by Virginia-based Fog concerns about how data share information about Ron Wyden that is now be- a stake in curbing this tech-
Data Science LLC, Fog Re- generated by popular how many police agencies fore Congress seeks to reg- nology."
veal has been used since apps is used for surveillance it works with. ulate the way government The New York Police De-
at least 2018 in criminal in- purposes, or "in some cas- Fog Reveal was developed agencies can obtain data partment used Fog Re-
vestigations ranging from es, being used to infer iden- by two former high-ranking from data brokers and oth- veal at its Real Time Crime
the murder of a nurse in Ar- tity and cause direct harm Department of Homeland er private companies, at a Center in 2018 and 2019, a
kansas to tracing the move- to people in the real world, Security officials under for- time when privacy advo- previously undisclosed rela-
ments of a potential partici- in the physical world and mer President George W. cates worry location track- tionship confirmed by pub-
pant in the Jan. 6 insurrec- being repurposed for, as Bush. It relies on advertis- ing could be put to other lic records. A spokesperson
tion at the Capitol. The tool was mentioned earlier, law ing identification numbers, novel uses, such as keeping said in an emailed state-
is rarely, if ever, mentioned enforcement and national which Fog officials say are tabs on people who seek ment that the NYPD used
in court records, something security purposes," said Sta- culled from popular cell- abortions in states where it Fog on a trial basis, "strictly
that defense attorneys say cey Gray, a senior director phone apps such as Waze, is now illegal. in the interest of develop-
makes it harder for them to for U.S. programs for the Fu- Starbucks and hundreds "It wasn't long ago that ing leads for criminal in-
properly defend their cli- ture of Privacy Forum. of others that target ads it would take high-tech vestigations and lifesaving
ents in cases in which the The FTC declined to com- based on a person's move- equipment or a dedicated operations such as missing
technology was used. ment specifically about ments and interests, ac- group of agents to track persons." The department
"Americans are increasing- Fog Reveal. cording to police emails. a person's movements did not say if it was success-
ly aware that their privacy Matthew Broderick, a Fog That information is then sold around the clock. Now, ful in either scenario.
is evaporating before their managing partner, told AP to companies like Fog. it just takes a few thou- Two nonprofits that have
eyes, and the real-world that local law enforcement Federal oversight of com- sand dollars and the will- supported privacy rights
implications can be dev- was at the front lines of traf- panies like Fog is an evolv- ingness to get in bed with cases in New York City said
astating. Today, compa- ficking and missing persons ing legal landscape. Last shady data brokers," said the tool exploited consum-
nies we've all heard of as cases, but often fell behind month, the Federal Trade Wyden, an Oregon Demo- ers' personal data and was
well as companies we're in technology adoption. Commission sued a data crat. "It is an outrage that "ripe for abuse," according
completely unaware of are "We fill a gap for under- broker called Kochava data brokers are selling to Surveillance Technology
collecting troves of data funded and understaffed that, like Fog, provides its detailed location data to Oversight Project Executive
about where we go, what departments," he said in clients with advertising IDs law enforcement agencies Director Albert Fox Cahn.
we do, and who we are," an email, adding that the that authorities say can around the country — in- "The lack of any meaning-
cluding in states that have ful regulation on the collec-
LIKE US ON made personal reproduc- tion and sale of app data
tive health decisions into is both a consumer and pri-
serious crimes." vacy crisis," Legal Aid Soci-
Because of the secrecy ety Staff Attorney Benjamin
surrounding Fog, there are Burger wrote in a recent
scant details about its use. post. "Both federal and
Most law enforcement state governments need
Facebook.com/arubatoday/ agencies won't discuss it, to develop policies that will
raising concerns among protect consumer data."q