Monday, 17 August 2020

Secret Service bought access to cellphone location data

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

The US Secret Service (USSS) signed a contract to access Locate X, a service that lets law enforcement track phone users’ locations. Motherboard published apparent confirmation of the deal this morning, following a Protocol report in March. The contract indicates that the USSS paid Virginia company Babel Street around $36,000 to add Locate X to a $2 million social media monitoring package.

Protocol’s report describes Locate X as a powerful tracking tool that aggregates data from popular phone apps, then lets buyers track the location history of devices that were active at a specific time and place. It reported that the Secret Service, US Customs and Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have all used the product. The...

Continue reading…



source https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/17/21371886/secret-service-usss-locate-x-babel-street-foia-contract-report

No comments:

Post a Comment

Vergecast: Two more iPhones, Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ event

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We started this week with some reviews of the alternatively-sized iPhone 12s — the mini and the Pro Max...