CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements
An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar tools.
The internal document relates to a “pilot” program CBP previously ran from 2019 to 2021, which would “aid in CBP’s targeting, vetting, analysis, and illicit network discovery processes,” it says. The document says the “evaluation will be focused on AdIDs associated with cross border criminal activity and/or activity with an identified terrorist/criminal predicate.”