The U.S. Department of homeland security has admitted using a database that tracks millions of smartphone users, ignoring a court ruling.
According to reports, the data has been used for border and immigration enforcement, and there is evidence that the Department of Homeland Security does not want to recognize its right to access the database.
According to foreign media reports, sources familiar with the situation said that the trump government has purchased a business database that collects activity maps of millions of smartphones in the United States and is using it for immigration and border enforcement.
The location data comes from ordinary mobile applications, such as games, weather and e-commerce applications, that have been authorized by users to record the location of mobile phones. According to the report, the U.S. Department of homeland security has used this information to detect illegal immigrants and other people who may enter the United States illegally.
Although smartphone users do technically authorize applications to access their location data, they often do not realize that their data may be sold to as many as 40 different companies.
In addition, users may be misled by the so-called privacy policy of protecting anonymity, but the reality is that under this policy, it is not worth mentioning that individual users are identified and tracked. In most cases, it is enough to identify a person just by locating the residence and office. After all, commuters are always "two frontlines".
According to foreign media, there was a case where law enforcement agencies deliberately concealed their use of the databases. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security used location-based data to detect whether mobile phone users were passing through a tunnel built by drug traffickers between the United States and Mexico, which was exported to a closed KFC fried chicken restaurant near St. Louis, Arizona, people familiar with the situation said. The move helped authorities arrest Ivan Lopez, the owner of the closed KFC restaurant, in 2018 for conspiring to build the tunnel. However, the police's record of the incident did not mention that there were location data showing him crossing the border between the United States and Mexico at this unusual location, but it was due to the results of routine stop checks.
A court ruling in 2018 restricted the U.S. government's power to obtain location data from telephone companies, but foreign media pointed out that buying location data from commercial companies was used as a way to circumvent the law.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security admitted buying a database that tracks millions of smartphones, but declined to say how it uses the information. The data was used to track cross-border movements and "mobile phone activity in unusual areas, such as remote desert areas," the source said.
