Geolocation Data for Law Enforcement: Fog Science Under Scrutiny
Fog Data Science leverages geolocation data to assist law enforcement in tracking individuals, including visits to specific addresses such as medical offices, according to a document obtained by 404 Media.
The document, titled Project Intake Form, requests detailed information from law enforcement about the person of interest, including biographical data, addresses of family members, friends, and physicians, as well as other known locations frequented by the individual.
Fog Data Science aggregates this data through applications and advertising ecosystems, making it available to law enforcement agencies. In 2022, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) revealed that the technology had been sold to various agencies, including local police departments. The company asserts that identifying frequent locations of an individual aids in filtering out irrelevant devices from searches, thereby refining the accuracy of movement tracking.
The requested data encompasses names, aliases, criminal connections, and personal characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, and religion. Locations deemed useful for analysis include gyms, places of worship, cafes, restaurants, sports arenas, friends’ or relatives’ homes, and offices of doctors or lawyers. The company claims to work with both physical addresses and precise coordinates.
The collected data is employed to identify mobile devices that repeatedly appear at specified locations.
In one email, a company representative discussed the project with the lead investigator for human trafficking at the Georgia Attorney General’s Office. However, neither the Attorney General’s Office nor Fog Data Science provided comments on the matter.
Fog Data Science differentiates itself from competitors such as Babel Street, Venntel, and Anomaly 6 by offering its services at a significantly lower cost. A subscription to its Fog Reveal tool costs local agencies under $10,000 per year, compared to the $100,000 annual API contract between Venntel and the Environmental Protection Agency.
EFF has also discovered that Fog acquires data from Venntel, as do several other companies in the sector. Documents suggest that Fog not only aids law enforcement in locating targets but also provides services to private investigative firms.
Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently prohibited Venntel and its parent company, Gravy Analytics, from selling data pertaining to sensitive locations, including medical facilities, places of worship, and refugee shelters.
Access to data regarding visits to medical institutions has drawn the most concern from privacy advocates. In October, Atlas Data Privacy Corp filed a lawsuit against Babel Street, accusing it of violating data privacy and utilizing its services for surveillance. The lawsuit alleges that Babel Street provides U.S. law enforcement agencies with access to its LocateX platform, which enables the tracking of individuals’ movements via mobile devices by using the unique MAID identifier embedded in Android and iOS smartphones.
