Homeland Security Buying Location Data

Homeland Security is doing what everyone else is doing and buying your location data from the data brokers. That practice started during the last administration and is continuing.

It is important to understand that there is nothing illegal about this. If the government wants to compel a carrier to hand over data, they need a warrant or subpoena, depending on the type of data, but if they are buying that data on the open market, the rules are no different than if I want to buy that data.

If the check clears, you can have the data, for the most part. Some people are more cautious about what they sell to whom, but that is up to the seller.

Homeland, according to disclosures, obtained data from more than 300,000 locations. That is just what was disclosed; there could be – and probably is – a lot more.

This data came from across the country – Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Denver and even from other countries – Toronto and Mexico City.

Based on a lawsuit from the ACLU, DHS disclosed data which the ACLU shared with Politico. The information reveals conversations between the government and surveillance companies like Babel Street and Venntel. Venntel says that they have location data for more than 250 million devices.

In just 3 days in 2018, the data shows, that Customs, part of DHS, collected more than 26 data points per minute – all legally and all without a warrant.

While people may claim that they didn’t know that they were giving up their privacy rights, unless you have been living on a different planet for the last few years, you know that everyone is selling your data.

This data has been used to track Muslims, track visitors to Planned Parenthood, track illegal immigrants and even to out a gay priest.

The location data industry is a $12 billion market.

Customs and border patrol (CBP) says that they use the data for immigration enforcement, human trafficking and narcotics investigations.

But, since there are no rules about what they can buy and from whom, what they can use it for and how long they can keep it, who knows. Read a lot more about this at Politico.

So what can you do to reduce your digital exhaust – notice I did not say eliminate it?

Here are three simple things:

#1 and the easiest is to turn off location on your phone when you are not using it. That won’t stop all location collection, but it means that the app has to use other methods.

#2 Do not grant location permission to apps unless you are convinced the app absolutely needs it and then grant the permission only while you are using the app. Some apps collect (and sell) your location data more than a thousand times a day.

#3 is to turn off or change frequently the advertising ID on your phone. I suggest turning it off unless you want, specifically, to be targeted. Here is how you do this on Android phones. You can use your favorite search engine to see how to do that on your iPhone.

If you just change your advertising ID, it will confuse them some, but if they see two IDs that sleep in the same place and work at the same place and go to the same gym or bar, they will infer that it is really one person.

Interesting stuff.

If you need help in reducing your digital exhaust, give us a shout.

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