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The Fourth Amendment, which forbids unreasonable searches, was violated by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration, Customs Enforcement, and other departments by purchasing large quantities of people’s cell phone data — location data secretly taken from smartphone apps. On the 18th of July, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) made this discovery when thousands of these previously unreleased records were made public.
The shocking information was obtained over the course of a year through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which put a spotlight on the government’s ability to obtain information, whether private or not, in exchange for financial compensation. A straightforward act — the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act — might put a stop to law enforcement agencies paying to acquire sensitive information with a price tag.
The Department of Homeland Security was able to collect more than 300,000 plus location data points across North America by using information obtained from mobile phone apps on hundreds of millions of phones. While 300,000 seems like a lot, it’s actually modest given that the CBP may have only referenced a small portion of the data. The data obtained by the government came from big cities all around North America, including Mexico City, Denver, Toronto, Chicago, New York, and much more.
Although this might appear alarming, it is nothing new, Politico states “In just three days in 2018, the documents show that the CBP collected data from more than 113,000 locations from phones in the Southwestern United States — equivalent to more than 26 data points per minute — without obtaining a warrant.” This shows they have been at it for a while.
Lawmakers must put this to an end, a massive invasion of privacy not being stopped anytime soon, as each day passes the government’s database of information collected by the government continues to grow and grow.
Written By Dylan Santoyo
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
ACLU: New Records Detail DHS Purchase and Use of Vast Quantities of Cell Phone Location Data
POLITICO: Homeland Security records show ‘shocking’ use of phone data, ACLU says
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of North Charleston‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Stock Catalog‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License