Surveillance Company Takes Orwellianism To INSANE New Levels
(NewsSpace.com) – The 4th Amendment of the Constitution explicitly bars authorities from illegal searches and seizures. Wireless technology, however, changed the game, offering new ways to track citizens without warrants or consent. Now authorities are being accused of doing exactly that.
The @AP has learned that U.S. law enforcement agencies across the country have used a cell-phone tracking data tool called “Fog Reveal,” at times without a search warrant, to follow people’s movements months back in time. https://t.co/QLYGVMy7Kr
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 1, 2022
On September 2, the Associated Press released an in-depth investigative report on a tracking app called “Fog Reveal.” The app, sold to law enforcement as a canvassing tool, has the ability to find mobile devices in the area of a crime scene, going back as far as three years. Those devices can then be tracked, creating a “pattern of life,” or a profile of that device’s owner. Authorities are accused of using it to search through billions of records for more than 250 million devices.
While the app doesn’t offer any actual personal information, it pinpoints the user by tracking their advertising tags. While the app enjoys widespread use among local, state, and federal officials, few agencies seem willing to discuss its use in court records. That may be because, in 2018, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Carpenter v. United States determined that simply owning a mobile device doesn’t mean a person forfeits the right to privacy.
Two former Homeland Security officials from the George W. Bush administration created the app. They contend that the anonymous nature of the information provided excludes it from the burden of warrants.
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