Government Agencies Monitoring Your Cell-Phone and Social Media

According to Forbes (September 19, 2018) ICE has acquired the services of GrayShift - the iPhone hacking company. And it’s spent more than any other government department on GrayShift tech, with a single order of $384,000. Other branches of the government, from the Drug Enforcement Administration to the Food and Drug Administration, have splashed between $15,000 and $30,000 on different models of the GrayKey, which requires physical access to an Apple device before it can break through the passcode.

But ICE is a different kind of customer altogether. Given recent controversy around President Trump's hard-line policies and the separation of infant children from their parents, human rights activists are concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of immigrants.

“It’s very concerning to learn that the government continues to bulk up on spying tools —which can violate privacy rights and chill free speech—for use in immigration enforcement and border entry surveillance,” a spokesperson from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said.

“These tools can sweep up information about legal U.S. immigrants and innocent Americans, and give ICE access to personal information with little oversight or transparency. ICE should be getting a warrant before using these technologies to search electronic devices, including at the U.S. border.”

This August, Cellebrite scored a significant $558,000 contract, while Palantir scored another $10 million as part of a multiyear deal with ICE stretching back to 2011 worth more than $50 million. Giant Oak, a specialist in tracking social media, had a profitable summer with two deals worth nearly $1 million each. Both were record deals for the company with any federal government department and were for “social media data analytics.” Over the last year, ICE has also spent $4.5 million on “intercept software” and “telecommunications analysis” tech from Pen-Link, a Nebraska-based contractor.

Alongside Israel’s Cellebrite, ICE has looked to a variety of foreign-made hacking tech to aid investigations. In August, it spent $41,000 on “computer support equipment” from Oxygen Forensics, a company founded by Russians that specializes in extracting WhatsApp data, among other artifacts, from iPhones and Androids. Canadian rival Magnet Forensics sold more “computer support equipment” to ICE in August for $371,000. That was more than double the value of its previous biggest deal between Magnet and the immigration department.
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Does the government have a valid use for these tools? Yes, of course, in legitimate criminal investigations, with properly issued warrants. But mass surveillance, the gathering of information about large groups of people, without warrants authorizing that specific collection is a concern.

 

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way Paperback

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.