Law Enforcement Agencies Use Commercial App Data to Track Movements Without Warrants

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent approximately $9 million between 2022 and 2026 on contracts to access Webloc, a surveillance tool capable of tracking hundreds of millions of mobile phones worldwide. By purchasing this data from commercial sources rather than requesting it from telecommunications providers, agencies can bypass the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that requires a warrant for location data obtained directly from carriers.

The Mechanism of Commercial Tracking

Webloc, developed by the Israeli startup Cobwebs and now owned by Penlink, functions by collecting vast quantities of location data from smartphones. Instead of relying on cellular tower pings, the tool harvests data from commonly used applications such as weather, gaming, email, and religious apps.

The system can analyze billions of location data points to provide a detailed picture of where a smartphone has been over the past year. For law enforcement, this allows for near real-time monitoring, enabling officers to zero in on a map and identify every phone present at a specific location and time.

Legal Loopholes and Global Reach

A significant legal distinction exists between data held by telecommunications companies and data sold by commercial entities. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that a warrant is required to obtain location data from carriers, the Justice Department has argued that this principle does not apply to data purchased from private sources.

This loophole has enabled a wide range of agencies to adopt the technology, including two branches of the US military and various state and local police departments. Internationally, the tool has been sold to authorities in Singapore, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates.

Practical Applications and Privacy Trade-offs

Law enforcement agencies report using the tool for diverse purposes, such as identifying suspects in bank robberies, tracking missing children, and monitoring human trafficking organizations. In Tucson, Arizona, police used the technology to trace a suspect involved in thefts and burglaries to a specific apartment block.

However, the expansion of these tools has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups. Critics argue that the ability to purchase mass surveillance data without judicial oversight allows the government to investigate people who may not be under any legal suspicion, creating a 'ridiculous expansion' of surveillance capabilities.

Uncertainties and Future Scope

While Penlink maintains that the tool is only for public safety and national security, internal documents revealed plans to market a version called Safeloc to private corporations for fraud detection and credit risk assessments. The company has since denied offering this specific product to the private sector.

It remains unclear exactly which specific apps are contributing the most data to the Webloc ecosystem, as the company does not provide a comprehensive list of its data sources. Additionally, the full extent of how ICE is utilizing this data for its deportation campaigns remains a subject of ongoing inquiry by lawmakers.