Mastodawn

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bought data from the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ precise movements over time, in a process that often involves siphoning data from ordinary apps like video games, dating services, and fitness trackers, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by 404 Media.

The document shows in stark terms the power, and potential risk, of online advertising data and how it can be leveraged by government agencies for surveillance purposes. https://www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-into-the-online-advertising-ecosystem-to-track-peoples-movements/

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements

An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar tools.

404 Media

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AI6YR Ben Mar 4

@exador23 Ah, so much for "trust us, we won't use your data in an evil way"

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AI6YR Ben Mar 4

@exador23

Ah yeah, this won't be abused...

"...In January, 404 Media reported on material which explained how a similar and more recently ICE-purchased system called Webloc works. It is designed to monitor a city neighborhood or block for mobile phones, then let ICE track the movements of those devices back to their likely homes or other locations. The material did not say how Penlink, the company selling the tool, obtains this location data. But surveillance companies broadly either obtain it through RTB, or small bundles of code called software development kits (SDKs) inserted into ordinary apps...."

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Rpsu (326 ppm)Mar 4

@ai6yr @exador23 SDK’s are everywhere simply because they make app development much simpler for the developers. Basically it is a bunch of shortcuts or code collections if you will, to let developers access or build features that would normally take (a lot) more work.

Using acronyms like this and throwing suspicion around them might serve the purpose but is both factually and as a mental model wrong.

The problem is lack of privacy on a system level.

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AI6YR Ben Mar 4

@rpsu @exador23 Yeah, I think what they are implying is that tracking is embedded in some libraries people are using, i.e. some developers may be using stuff that is tracking you and not know it, or similar. (but that is conjecture on my part).

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Rpsu (326 ppm)Mar 4

@ai6yr @exador23 And most likely this is the case!

On the other hand properly built and well optimized application does not carry such functionality with it unless the tracking (spying) features are actually used. Optimisations (should) drop all dead code from SDK’s effectively removing this sort of hidden “features”.

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ShadSterling Mar 4

@exador23 all the more reason to ban this kind of tracking

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Lockpick Extreme Mar 4

@exador23 the 4th constitutional right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure needs to apply to the data the goverment uses, not who collected it.