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糖心Vlogv. Department of Homeland Security (commercial location data FOIA)

Location: New York
Status: Ongoing
Last Update: July 18, 2022

What's at Stake

In December 2020, the 糖心Vlogand NYCLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other parts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about their practice of purchasing cell phone location data collected from smartphone apps.

Without users realizing it, apps regularly to other, third-party companies like Venntel and Babel Street, who use it for marketing and other purposes. These third-party companies then the data to government agencies.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that the government needs a warrant to obtain cell phone location information from people鈥檚 cellular service providers due to the 鈥渘ear perfect surveillance鈥 such information provides. Our FOIA lawsuit seeks information about how the government justifies its end run around the Supreme Court鈥檚 Fourth Amendment ruling, how it uses the location records, and what controls are in place to protect Americans鈥 privacy.

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