"An earlier probe found that ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Secret Service were all illegally purchasing people's data, and that program ended in 2023. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general also found serious privacy oversteps - including employees sharing accounts and passwords for phone-tracking databases, supervisors failing to request or review audit logs to detect patterns of abuse, and in one instance, a DHS employee abusing this phone location data to track coworkers."
"In September, DHS signed a $2.3 million contract with a surveillance company called PenLink that allows ICE to use its location-tracking software, Webloc. Lawmakers argue the system can be used to obtain and analyze individuals' location data without a court warrant. The Webloc tool was developed by Israeli firm Cobwebs Technologies, which was combined with PenLink as part of a 2023 private equity deal."
"According to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who initiated the earlier investigation and is one of the 70 lawmakers to sign the March 3 letter, Homeland Security never issued a policy. Additionally, ICE has since resumed its location data purchases."
A previous inspector general investigation found that ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Secret Service illegally purchased Americans' location data without warrants. The investigation revealed serious privacy violations including employees sharing database access credentials, supervisors failing to review audit logs, and instances of employees abusing location data to track coworkers. Although the program ended in 2023 and the inspector general recommended DHS-wide policies for oversight, Homeland Security never implemented these recommendations. ICE has since resumed location data purchases through a $2.3 million contract with surveillance company PenLink for its Webloc tool, which lawmakers argue enables warrant-free location tracking. Seventy lawmakers now call for investigation into these renewed purchases.
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