Electronic surveillance

 

Senators Urge Investigation After CBP Admits to Warrantless Cell Phone Surveillance

Customs and Border Protection is using commercially available location data from cell phones to conduct warrantless tracking of people inside the U.S. and refused to provide lawmakers with a legal justification for these activities, according to five senators.

In a letter sent Friday to Homeland Security Department Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, five Democratic senators questioned CBP’s use of subscriptions with data broker Venntel, a government contractor based in Virginia, which gives them access to commercial location data.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, asked the inspector general to examine the legal analysis CBP performed—if such analysis exists—before the agency began using the tool.

“CBP outrageously asserted that its legal analysis is privileged and therefore does not have to be shared with Congress,” the letter reads. “We disagree.”

Privacy experts have long warned data brokers like Venntel are able to share detailed information about people’s lives using location data from apps users may not even realize are tracking such information. Many argue the need for more regulation around data privacy is urgent. Even when anonymized, geographic data can contain enough detail to re-identify individual users.