Surveillance became known thanks to an information leak that reached journalists. It turned out that the police illegally tracked the geolocation data of 250 million users. It was also learned that the security forces purchased tracking technology from Fog Data Science. This was confirmed by checking the government spending database GovSpend: Fog sold its service to at least 40 law enforcement agencies under 24 contracts.
This is how Fog’s tracking technology works: It collects location data from free coffee shop apps like Starbucks or Waze navigator. Each device is assigned an “ad identifier” – same question “watch location?” This data collects the user’s actions to improve the service.
The surveillance likely began in 2018, after Donald Trump directed people to the Capitol who disagreed with the results of the presidential election. At the same time, there was no court authorization for surveillance.
Source: Ferra
