S.T.O.P. Condemns Secret Police Tool ‘Fog Reveal’ For Tracking Millions, Calls For Ban

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View this email in your browser For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Condemns Secret Police Tool ‘Fog Reveal’ For Tracking Millions, Calls For Ban (New York, NY, 9/1/2022) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a privacy and civil rights group, condemns widespread, national police use of Fog Reveal, a secret cellphone tracking tool that uses devices’ advertising data to track millions of Americans. Founded by former Department of Homeland Security officials, Fog Reveal allows police to search up to 250 million mobile devices and find location data going back months at a time through a single request. According to reporting by AP News, police have used Fog Reveal without warrants, including to geofence entire areas without court approval. SEE: AP News – Tech tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ https://apnews.com/article/technology-police-government-surveillance-d395409ef5a8c6c3f6cdab5b1d0e27ef EFF - Inside Fog Data Science, the Secretive Company Selling Mass Surveillance to Local Police https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/08/inside-fog-data-science-secretive-company-selling-mass-surveillance-local-police “It’s wrong that advertisers secretly track us, and it’s criminal that they sell our data to police,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “Fog Reveal is ripe for abuse. No police department should be allowed to amass this much of our data.  A country where officers can track nearly anyone, at any time, without a warrant doesn’t sound like a democracy. Because there is no oversight, we have no idea how often officers have abused this power already. Law makers must act now, not just to ban this one company, but to shut down this entire industry.” S.T.O.P. renewed its call on Congress to pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which would ban law enforcement from warrantless location data purchases and from purchasing facial recognition data from controversial firm Clearview AI. The civil rights group also renewed its call for passage of New York’s Reverse Location Search Prohibition Act, which would completely ban geofence warrants, keyword warrants, and police purchases of such data. SEE: The Hill - Putting a price on privacy: Ending police data purchases https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/552105-putting-a-price-on-privacy-ending-police-data-purchases/ Motherboard - 'Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act' Would Ban Clearview and Warrantless Location Data Purchases https://www.vice.com/en/article/k78qyy/fourth-amendment-is-not-for-sale-act-would-ban-clearview-and-warrantless-location-data-purchases S.T.O.P - Geolocation Tracking Ban https://www.stopspying.org/location-tracking The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. 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 -- CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn Copyright © 2021 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.