- cross-posted to:
- hackernews
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews
A social media and phone surveillance system ICE bought access to is designed to monitor a city neighborhood or block for mobile phones, track the movements of those devices and their owners over time, and follow them from their places of work to home or other locations, according to material that describes how the system works obtained by 404 Media.
Commercial location data, in this case acquired from hundreds of millions of phones via a company called Penlink, can be queried without a warrant, according to an internal ICE legal analysis shared with 404 Media. The purchase comes squarely during ICE’s mass deportation effort and continued crackdown on protected speech, alarming civil liberties experts and raising questions on what exactly ICE will use the surveillance system for.
“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency. This granular location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media.
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People get offended whenever I’ve said that even random app developers are part of the problem. They can’t or won’t see that what we have arrived at is a Kafkesque world. It has been death by millions of papercuts. The collective rush to make an “app for everything” was in net effect building a global surveillance dragnet. It was inevitable the aggregate of data would turned into an authoritarian system of oppression.
All you wanted to do was make a 99 cents a sale for your basic phone app. You blindly stuffed it with copy-paste analytics APIs that voraciously collect data from users without transparency at all. You insisted that these random data brokers are 100% super honest. Just trust them, bro. You ridiculed anyone of trying to warn people how reckless this is. Good job, guys.
The people should start buying this data to identify ICE personnel involved in incidents. It’s not like you need to be law enforcement to get access to this. You just need money.
I bet a nonprofit would have a reasonable chance of raising the funds to buy the data and publicly publish it.
We need to be more careful than that, no one wants to end up on a list when a non-profit is required to show its books.
Should be a very private and affordable for-profit with some reasonable way to keep payments off the books
Are nonprofits required to track who they receive donations from? I could be wrong, but I don’t think they are. They have to have financial records, but I don’t think that means maintaining a donor list.
It wasn’t that long ago we had phones that couldn’t leave the house. This choice does still exist for us.
Does it? It was possible a while ago, but in the last years, we saw train tickets going to apps. There is no ticket machine at my local stop. There are areas where you can only park your car with an app. I need 2FA to get into my accounts. Restaurants have QR code menus. So going to protests or just living your life without a phone is getting harder
I lived without a cell phone for about 3 years (2022-2025), and once in a while there was a small hurdle but overall it was surprisingly easy. 2FA can be done via text/email, I never ran into an instance where I needed an app. Every ticket I bought could be printed at home, so it takes a little more forethought but not a deal breaker. Never ran into any parking stations that couldn’t be paid via a kiosk/card, but YMMV.
These days I own a phone per request of one of my business clients, but it stays turned off at home unless I’m on a job. Once in a while I’ll break it out to use the GPS but most places I drive to I can find by memory. There are many “middle” ground solutions out there too (like Graphene OS), but as a general rule, I would make a habit of leaving your phone at home when you can, and definitely when engaging in anything spicy.
The choice does exist, but it gets harder and harder to go without a phone
Many jobs expect us to be available at all hours. Younger generations cannot navigate without maps. Phones are also the primary way we record/observe ICE. They’re also our calendar/organizer, notebook, and many other things
Sure, we can have an independent GPS, camera, calendar, and notepad, but the barrier keeps getting higher
We need to develop counter measures, and long-term pass strong laws banning this level of government surveillance
US a surveillance regime as much as North Korea, China and Russia.
US surveillance is far more effective than North Korea or Russia’s domestic surveillance
Only China is in the same realm in terms of ability to surveil citizens. They’re just more open about using it for low-level offenses
Your phone company is selling this data. Your tax dollars are then used to spy on you. But let’s place the blame with the enablers. If the data wasn’t being sold, ICE couldn’t buy it with your money.
Privacy is a myth in the United States.
There’s plenty of blame to go around on this, no need to only go after one party in the whole chain that allows this to occur.
Privacy is a myth everywhere that you use social media, cellular connected GPS trackers (aka phones), drive around with unique number plates while OCR capable video cameras take continuous records of which plates passed by them and when. Yes, it’s bad in the US. Is it better anywhere else?
Do not take your phone to protests/rallies/organized events. Do not turn it off and take it with you thinking it’s okay, they will know when and where you turned it off. Jury is still out if modern phones truly turn off as well. Use a regular camera for taking pictures, take lots of them, get faces, IDs, anything if you can of ICE. Let them start the violence first.
One of the best things about phones with batteries you can replace. You can take them out of the phone as well.
Yep, I miss removable batteries. Not just for the ability to replace the batteries (e.g. due to degradation) but also to be able to completely remove power from the device.
Pardon the pedanticness: Phones do NOT completely power down. The jury is out on if they are still traceable in “standby”/psuedo-powered off mode. The generally accepted advice is to treat them like they are still tracable.
If “Find my phone” still works when it’s turned off, then yes, phones are definitely traceable when powered down.
Wasn’t sure if they were or not, why I mentioned the jury was out on it. Regardless, leave your phone at home.
I thought this was going to say they were deploying Stingrays in neighborhoods. Pretty sure this is worse, because at least a Stingray requires something be physically present. Fuck all of this.
Yeah, same. I setup an Orbic with RayHunter exactly for this reason. I took that with me when I’ve gone by protests just to see if there’s one present. Then, if in the clear, shut down my personal devices and attended. I’m paranoid like that I guess…
Setup Meshtastic nodes too.
Having the ability to communicate without using cellular infrastructure is incredibly useful, especially during natural disasters (which ICE certainly qualifies).
Damn I’ll check that out
Benn Jordan has some other ideas too(and a bit more detail on the mesh technologies/DIY options available): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_F4rEaRduk
“This is wrong” — Lucius Fox, The Dark Knight
Prescient, and also an example of copaganda/how corporate media conditions the public to accept this shit because the “good guy” is the one using it.
I mean, they acknowledge that it’s wrong, and they acknowledge that Bruce Wayne is not stable enough to have power by having him give the power to Lucius.
Not all scenes are so one-note that it only ever has one meaning or message.
Lucius shouldn’t have that power either! It’s not an issue of being “stable enough;” it’s an issue of anyone having it. Frankly, your argument kinda proves my point.
It’s analogous to a limited hangout. Sure, they acknowledge it’s wrong, but that doesn’t stop them from doing it and they suffer no bad consequences for that choice. Really, what’s the Aesop people are actually going to take from it? The one based on the demonstrably empty words, or the one based on the actions?
Thanks for including the app list!
In July 2023, PenLink merged with Israeli surveillance contractor Cobwebs Technologies
Tangles is a web platform, originally developed and sold by Israeli firm Cobwebs Technologies, that scrapes data from the open web, deep web, and dark web, as well as allowing for the tracking of mobile devices within a user-designated area, in a process known as “geofencing,” through an optional add-on feature called WebLoc.
Cobwebs and how the spying is going global.
Laughs in root level location spoofing module
How does anything in your phone “spoof” triangulation by cell towers? Just tell them “This phone’s not actually connected to you”?
That’s not what they’re using. Apps that sell location data is the source.
Oh, and I have a removable battery for avoiding triangulation if need be.
You can also get a faraday bag.
