John,
Cell phone companies have been selling our location data—and now Homeland Security is buying it.
An expose by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Homeland Security bought a database that tracks millions of phones in the US and is using it to locate undocumented immigrants.1
We need data privacy laws to protect us from cell phone companies’ data abuses now. Will you donate to Fight For the Future and help stop location tracking without our permission?
Yes, I’ll donate to stop Homeland Security from buying our location data.
Late last year, the New York Times’ Privacy Project reported on how dozens of companies were using data provided by apps to log the movement of tens of millions of people.2
As people visited banks, clubs, beaches, and schools, their locations were recorded into databases. And while the companies claim that the data is anonymous, it is easily connected to people’s identities.
One researcher likened the data to DNA in terms of how easy it was to use to discover a person’s identity.3 Unlike DNA, however, there are no laws stopping corporations from collecting this data—and selling it to the highest bidder.
Now we know that Homeland Security is one of the buyers.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used location data to search remote stretches of the US border. The agency used the data to make arrests of people it assumed to be undocumented.4
When app users grant permission to use location data, they have no idea that data can and will be passed on to other corporations and even the government. It’s a terrifying violation of privacy, and we need Congress to pass legislation to stop it.
Will you donate to help protect our location data from the government?
Together,
Evan at Fight for the Future
Footnotes:
1. Mashable https://mashable.com/article/dhs-tracking-cellphone-location/
2. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html
3. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html
4. Mashable: https://mashable.com/article/dhs-tracking-cellphone-location/
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
