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FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

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Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#71

That's the job of the FBI - to investigate domestic crimes. But, why do private organizations so willingly participate in the tracking ecosystem? I suppose they're in the, "you have nothing to worry about if you're not doing anything illegal" camp! Hopefully they understand that they have the most to lose.

Lemme give you an example.

Many retail sites have a "find a nearby" store function. They often outsource this to a third party...for something as silly as geolocation and geographical lookups. This third party is the one that offers its services for a discount but also siphons up your location data to sell.

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#72
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CIA buys this data to track Putin's chef so of course China and Russia are doing the same to us.

Do you have a source for this claim?

https://www.wired.com/story/how-pentagon-learned-targeted-ad...

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#73
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it is not the job of the FBI to to conduct mass surveillance of citizens.

What if an investigation is based on finding the same specific people near another specific person that they're tracking, but they only know about the one person, not the others. And by doing this they stop a terror attack? One more thought - if they buy just data for specific people related to an investigation, the seller of the data is tipped off. If they just buy all the data, then there is no potential tip-off to…

They can get a warrant.

And by doing this they stop a terror attack?

Fuck off. This is just trying to manipulate people with fear of undefined bad thing.

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#75
post #67
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Carpenter v. United States (2018) was a landmark Supreme Court case that held the government generally needs a warrant to access historical cell-site location information (CSLI) from cell phone carriers, as its acquisition constitutes a Fourth Amendment search This is very different from buying your data from a company especially when the user consented to their location being tracked. Too many people in these thre…

> This is very different from buying your data from a company especially when the user consented to their location being tracked. No, it's not 'very different'. When you sign a cellular contract you consent to all sorts of tracking and data collection, but it still requires a warrant for government to obtain.

You don’t actually consent (per-se) in most cases. Hence the warrant.

If you consented, no warrant would be required.

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#76

Who's selling the data is the far more serious issue here. Behind this is a remarkably well-structured syndicate. The supply chain looks something like this: consumer apps embed ad SDKs → those SDKs feed location signals into RTB ad exchanges → surveillance-oriented firms sit in the RTB pipeline and harvest bid request data even without winning auctions → that data flows to aggregators who don't have any direct relat…

The RTB thing has been around for over a decade at this point. What I’m not sure about is what’s being sold by car companies. I know they sell the data to insurance companies. I’m curious if the government can manage to get it as well commercially.

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#77
I'd really like to just have legislation to treat location data like audio or video under wiretapping provisions. If you collect my location info and convey it to a third party without my consent or a reasonable good-faith belief that I would consent, that ought to be treated similarly to recording without consent.

And consent needs to be granted explicitly for each party that might get access to my location, you can't just get blanket consent to sell my location to anyone, especially not with real-time identifiable location data.

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#78

This should be a surprise to absolutely no one. I think it sucks, but I also don't think it's anything new.

Yeah, if you had any faith in these private companies to not bend over backwards for the feds, I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#79

Who's selling the data is the far more serious issue here. Behind this is a remarkably well-structured syndicate. The supply chain looks something like this: consumer apps embed ad SDKs → those SDKs feed location signals into RTB ad exchanges → surveillance-oriented firms sit in the RTB pipeline and harvest bid request data even without winning auctions → that data flows to aggregators who don't have any direct relat…

I think the pipeline needs to be plugged at both ends. We shouldnt allow this data to be sold without express consent. And we shouldnt allow the government to purchase this sort of data regardless of consent, protected under the 4th amendment. unless, iguess, express consent is given to be used by the government for investigative purposes, which no one would give since they dont have to under the 5th amendment

Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

#80
post #79

Who's selling the data is the far more serious issue here. Behind this is a remarkably well-structured syndicate. The supply chain looks something like this: consumer apps embed ad SDKs → those SDKs feed location signals into RTB ad exchanges → surveillance-oriented firms sit in the RTB pipeline and harvest bid request data even without winning auctions → that data flows to aggregators who don't have any direct relat…

I think the pipeline needs to be plugged at both ends. We shouldnt allow this data to be sold without express consent. And we shouldnt allow the government to purchase this sort of data regardless of consent, protected under the 4th amendment. unless, iguess, express consent is given to be used by the government for investigative purposes, which no one would give since they dont have to under the 5th amendment

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