Tech

What is Fog Reveal? A legal scholar explains the app some police forces are using to track people without a warrant


Government agencies and private security firms in the United States have found a cost-effective way to get involved. monitor individuals, groups, and places: a pay-to-access web tool called Fog Reveal.

Permission Tools Law enforcement officer to see “life patterns” — where and when people work and live, who they associate with, and what places they visit. The tool’s maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from over 250 million US mobile devices.

Fog Reveal appears when Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an online civil liberties nonprofit, is investigating location data brokers and discovered the program through a Freedom of Information Act request. EFF’s investigation found that Fog Reveal allows law enforcement and private companies to identify and track people and monitor specific locations and events, such as protests, demonstrations, places of worship and healthcare clinics. The Associated Press found that nearly two dozen Government agencies across the country signed a contract with Fog Data Science to use the tool.

The government’s use of Fog Reveal highlights a problematic difference between data privacy laws and electronic surveillance laws in the United States. It’s a distinction that creates a kind of loophole, allowing large amounts of data are collected, aggregated, and used in ways that are not transparent to most people. That distinction is much more important after the Supreme Court Dobbs sues Jackson Women’s Health Organization decided to revoke the constitutional right to abortion. Dobbs puts the privacy of reproductive health information and related data points, including related location data, at significant jeopardy.

The personal data warehouse Fog Data Science is selling and buying by government agencies, exists because of the increasingly advanced technologies in the industry. smart device collect increasingly large amounts of intimate data. Without meaningful choice or control on the part of the user, smart device and application manufacturers collect, use, and sell that data. It’s a technological and legal dilemma that makes threaten privacy and personal freedomand it’s a problem I worked for many years as a practicing attorney, researcher, and law professor.

Government surveillance

US intelligence agencies have long used technology to engage in surveillance programs such as PRISMcollect data about individuals from technology companies such as Google, especially since 9/11—Probably for national security reasons. These programs are generally authorized and subject to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and The Patriot Act. While there is important debating value and abuse Among these laws and programs, they operate under court and congressional oversight.

Domestic law enforcement agencies also use technology for surveillance, but generally with greater limitations. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Constitution of Fourth Amendmentprotects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and federal electronic surveillance laws require domestic law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before tracking someone’s location using a GPS device or mobile site location information.

Fog Reveal is something completely different. The tool — created by smart device technology and the distinction between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections — enables domestic law enforcement agencies and organizations to private entity that buys access to aggregated data about most US cell phones, including location data. It allows tracking and monitoring of people on a large scale without the need for court oversight or open transparency. The company has made little public comment, but details of its technology have been released through EFF investigations and referenced AP.

Fog Reveal’s data

Every smartphone has Advertising ID—A sequence of numbers that uniquely identifies the device. Supposedly, the advertising ID is anonymous and is not directly linked to the subscriber’s name. In reality, that may not be the case.






AP investigative journalist G clear Burke explains how she and her colleagues discovered the use of Fog Reveal by law enforcement.

Private companies and apps exploit the GPS capabilities of smartphones, providing detailed location data and advertising IDs, so that smartphones go anywhere and anytime users download down the app or visit the website, it will create a trail. Fog data science says they get this “marketable data” from data brokers, which allows the tool to track devices through their advertising IDs. Although these numbers do not contain the name of the phone user, they can be easily traced to home and work to help police identify the user and establish life pattern analysis.

Law enforcement’s use of Fog Reveal highlights the gap between US data privacy laws and electronic surveillance laws. The loophole is so large that — despite Supreme Court rulings requiring an order for law enforcement to use GPS and mobile website data to track people — it remains unclear whether law enforcement the use of Fog Reveal is illegal or not.

Electronic surveillance and data privacy

Electronic surveillance law protection and data privacy mean two very different things in the United States. There are strong federal electronic surveillance laws that govern surveillance in the country. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act regulations when and how Domestic law enforcement and private organizations can “eavesdrop,” i.e. intercept a person’s communications or track one’s location.

Along with Fourth Amendment protections, ECPA typically requires law enforcement agencies to obtain a probable cause-based order to intercept someone’s communications or track someone’s location. it using GPS and mobile site location information. In addition, ECPA allows an officer to receive orders only when the officer is investigating certain crimes, so the law limits their own authority to only monitoring serious crimes. Violating ECPA is a crime.

The vast majority of states have laws that mirror ECPA, although some, like Maryland, give citizens more protection from unwanted surveillance.

The Fog Reveal tool raises huge concerns about privacy and civil liberties, but what it’s selling — the ability to track almost anyone at all times — may be permissible because US lacks comprehensive federal data privacy laws. ECPA allows electronic interception and surveillance when a person consents to such surveillance.

With federal data privacy laws, when someone clicks “I agree” on the pop-up box, there are certain restrictions on the collection, use, and aggregation of user data by private organizations. kernel, including location data. This is the gap between data and electronic security monitoring upholds the law and it provides the framework under which huge US data sharing market.

The need for data privacy laws

Without strong federal data privacy protections, smart device manufacturers, application makers, and data brokers will continue, unregulated, to use smart device’s sophisticated sensing technology and GPS capabilities to commercially collect and aggregate large amounts of confidential and revealing data. As it stands, that data warehouse may not be protected from law enforcement. However, the permitted commercial use of advertising IDs to track devices and users without meaningful notice and consent could change if the US Data Privacy Protection Act , approved by the United States House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee by vote is 53-2 on July 20, 2022, passed.

The future of ADPPA is uncertain. The app industry is strongly against any curtailment of its data collection practices, and some states are fighting the ADPPA’s federal waiver, which could reduce privacy protections. Protection is provided through state data privacy laws. For example, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, has said that lawmakers will need to address concerns from California that the bill will override the state’s stronger protections. . before she called to vote for ADPPA.

The stakes are very high. Recently executive investigation highlights real world consequences stemming from a lack of robust data privacy protection. With the Dobbs ruling, these circumstances will give rise to absentee congressional actions.


New US data privacy bill to give you more control over information collected about you


Provided by
Conversation


This article was republished from Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read original article.Conversation

Quote: What is Fog Reveal? A legal scholar explaining the app some police forces are using to track people without a warrant (2022, October 17) retrieved October 17, 2022 from https://techxplore .com/news/2022-10-fog-reveal-legal-scholar- app.html

This document is the subject for the collection of authors. Other than any fair dealing for personal study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content provided is for informational purposes only.

news7f

News7F: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button