The Wall Street Journal revealed that the Trump administration has bought location data from millions of smartphones in an effort to help its immigration and border control agencies. Actions that have taken place since 2017 and which have led to the arrest of several individuals who are said to have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The location data indeed allowed the American police forces to locate the place where the people crossed the border.
US authorities have had access to this information through commercial databases compiled by marketing companies. Indeed, advertisers and developers can get hold of a significant amount of information about their users without them necessarily noticing or worrying about it. This is particularly the case for weather applications that require the precise location of users in order to offer a personalized service. However, this collected data is likely to be sold to digital advertisers in order to target consumers with specific advertisements or to the United States government, for example.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to the American media that it had purchased the location data of individuals. However, the authority did not expressly recognize that the immigration, customs or border protection departments had access to it.
The anonymity argument doesn't hold water
The main data provider to the United States government is Venntel, a company that defines itself as "a pioneer in mobile location information" that "supports [national] interests through technological innovation".
US authorities told the Wall Street Journal that the data purchased was anonymous. In other words, they would not make it possible to determine the identity of people. In fact, it is often possible to find out who owns the unique identifier of a smartphone, as has already been demonstrated.
Even if the actions of the American authorities raise questions about the respect of the privacy rights of the Americans, several experts told the Wall Street Journal that all this was quite legal since the American government bought data from commercial companies as could do advertising companies. This is in contrast to the direct collection of location data from mobile phones for which the police need a warrant.
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