Cellphone Tracking Targets Protests

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View this email in your browser For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Condemns Cellphone Tracking At BLM Protests, Calls For Passage of NY Ban On Location Tracking   (NEW YORK, NY, 06/29/2020) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy group, condemned reports that the data company Mobilewalla used cellphone information to track almost 17,000 attendees at Black Lives Matter protests, renewing its calls for passage of a New York State ban on location tracking. Reporting from Buzzfeed News found Mobilewalla used cellphone location data to track protesters in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.   SEE: Almost 17,000 Protesters Had No Idea A Tech Company Was Tracing Their Location https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/protests-tech-company-spying   The civil rights group noted that cellphone location data is increasingly relied upon by law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a practice the group has worked to outlaw in New York State. They noted how the exact same technology could be used by police to track nearly every Black Lives Matter protester.   SEE: Law enforcement is now buying cellphone location data from marketers https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/7/21127911/ice-border-cellphone-data-tracking-department-homeland-security-immigration   Geofence warrants: How police can use protesters' phones against them https://www.cnet.com/news/geofence-warrants-how-police-can-use-protesters-phones-against-them/   “Cell phone location tracking is dangerous, invasive, and a threat to democracy itself,” said surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “Law enforcement can simply buy our cellphone location data, or seize it using a so-called ‘geofence warrant,’ tracking nearly everyone joining in these historic protests and uprisings. Police departments can purchase our history from data brokers without any court oversight. But when they seize data using geofence warrants, it makes a mockery of the Constitution. A single court order can okay searches on hundreds or even thousands of individuals, undermining the entire purpose of requiring warrants in the first place. The judges approving these orders simply can’t know how much data they’re handing over to law enforcement when they approve the request.”   The news comes two months after the civil rights group worked with State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Dan Quart to introduce the first ban on police geolocation tracking in the country. The legislation would outlaw both geofence warrants and the purchase of location data from commercial data brokers.   SEE: Google’s Geofence Warrants Face a Major Legal Challenge https://onezero.medium.com/googles-geofence-warrants-face-a-major-legal-challenge-ac6da1408fba?gi=sd   Protests, Virus Boost NY Bill To Ban Geofence Warrants https://www.law360.com/articles/1281815/protests-virus-boost-ny-bill-to-ban-geofence-warrants Cahn continued, “unchecked police surveillance causes more police stops, more arrests, and more police violence. These invasive tools often are no better than high-tech profiling of Black and Latin/X Americans, putting our communities of color at risk of the same deadly violence that took the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others.” The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider hosted by the Urban Justice Center. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.   - END –   Copyright © 2019 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.