US National Intelligence AgencyFBI) admitted to having bought millions of mobile phone data from US users for espionage and surveillance.
The Office of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a declassified report detailing the extent of this practice (h/t: TechCrunch). The report confirms that agencies buy so-called commercially available information (CAI) from citizens.
This commercially available data comes from smartphones, connected cars, IoT devices, web tracking technologies such as cookies, and more traditional paths (such as public records). The data generated from these purchases includes location information, online activity, social media information, and more.
“In the wrong hands, confidential ideas obtained through CAI can contribute to blackmail, harassment, harassment and public stigmatization,” the report excerpt says.
In addition, the report notes that this practice has implications for civil liberties:
“CAI can reveal, for example, the detailed movements and associations of individuals and groups, revealing political, religious, tourism and speech activities. CAI can be used, for example, to identify each person who attended a protest or rally based on the location of their smartphones or ad tracking logs.”
Source: Digital Trends
