I guess we all sort of kinda already knew this, but still, I mean...it's not exactly the most calming, encouraging news, is it?
Newly released documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security has extensive access to people's cellphone location data.
Agents from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement had access to 336,000 location points via data harvested from hundreds of millions of mobile devices, according to documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday.
"The records, which the ACLU obtained over the course of the last year through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, shed new light on the government's ability to obtain our most private information by simply opening the federal wallet," wrote ACLU fellow Shreya Tewari and paralegal Fikayo Walter-Johnson in an article announcing the release.
Everyone looking at their phones right now:
Note that this is very much not simply an issue of "metadata:"
DHS spent millions of dollars to purchase access to cellphone location data from the data brokers Venntel and Babel Street, according to the documents. These data can be used to identify devices observed at "places of interest" and "identify repeat visitors, frequented locations, pinpoint known associates, and discover pattern of life," according to Venntel's promotional material.
Okay I only got one question: Can they see how often I go to Baskin-Robbins?
Cause I'll pay good money to keep that on the hush-hush.
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