ICE Loses Access To Sensitive Utility Customer Records Following Pressure By Senator Ron Wyden
from the and-now-we'll-wait-for-the-law-enforcement-pushback dept
Another one of ICE's (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) data spigots has been shut off. Don't cry too many tears for poor old ICE. It still has plenty of options. It's still hoovering up location data from app developers who either don't know or don't care that this data is buyable through data brokers. It also still has plenty of privileges, thanks to laws and judicial decisions that say most constitutional rights are null and void within 100 miles of our nation's ports of entry (borders, coasts, and -- making this far more concerning -- any domestic airport offering international flights).
Plenty of data can still be had (and plenty of brokers willing to sell it), but ICE has just lost access to one source of data it uses to track down immigrants: utility bill information gathered, packaged, and sold to government agencies by third parties like Equifax and Reuters.
Equifax gathers this information ostensibly to assess the creditworthiness of United States residents. (It also leaks this information on occasion.) Thomson Reuters uses the same information (called "utility header data") in its CLEAR database, which contains "billions of data points" and "leverages cutting-edge public records technology." Its potent combination of bulk data and profit-seeking is sold to whoever wants access, which includes US law enforcement agencies.
ICE no longer has access to this data through CLEAR. At least the "utility header data" part of it. So have the nation's law enforcement agencies. Following pressure from Senator Ron Wyden, utility companies will no longer allow this data to be resold by Equifax to private entities like Reuters. (Possible paywall ahead. Alternate link.)
A nationwide group of utility companies that provided sensitive data from millions of Americans’ cable, phone and power bills to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government agencies has agreed to end the practice in response to concerns the information was being misused to track the general public.
Wyden's pressure on the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) prompted change. The NCTUE told Equifax to stop selling this data. This means the data no longer flows to Reuters' CLEAR database, which means agencies like ICE no longer have access to it.
But Reuters isn't the only player in the data market. There are plenty of third parties purchasing data and selling it to government agencies and other third parties. That's why Wyden is now demanding the Consumer Finance Protection Board start doing its job and start regulating the sale of Americans' data.
Wyden, a longtime critic of government surveillance, called on the CFPB to further rein in a data-broker industry that he said had spun “out of control” due in part to “vague and undefined regulations.” He urged the agency to aggressively investigate how data gathered for commercial purposes was ending up in the hands of law enforcement without court approval or oversight.
“Selling personal information that people provide to sign up for power, water and other necessities of life, and giving them no choice in the matter, is an egregious abuse of consumers’ privacy,” Wyden wrote. “The personal privacy of hundreds of millions of people should not depend upon the goodwill of corporations worried about negative headlines.”
Currently, it's third parties on top of third parties, buying data from wherever it can be purchased and repackaging it for sale to others. This has led to consumers being misled about everything, from the data being collected to how the data is being used. Boilerplate about sales or licensing to third parties doesn't make it clear information collected to open and maintain necessities of life (like utility services) will ultimately be part of "billions of data points" accessible without a warrant by law enforcement.
As of right now, the data Wyden is concerned about is bought and sold in a gray market -- one not directly affected by regulation. That's what Wyden hopes to change.
The sale of credit payment histories and related data is closely regulated under federal law. But government agencies can access credit header data because the regulations do not clearly outline how the revealing information can be used. Wyden urged CFPB to clarify the law and investigate how the data is sold.
Government agencies and data brokers have long preyed on the disconnect between public perception and the far uglier reality of data harvesting. Customers and consumers understand utility companies need to collect information to provide service and collect payment. They may also make the small logical leap that payment histories will be forwarded to companies that assess credit ratings. What they almost never assume is that all this data -- which includes names, addresses, social security numbers, and plenty of contact info -- can be accessed at will by US law enforcement agencies.
Many data fire hoses are still in operation. But this move slows one form of data to a drip -- one that travels to Equifax but goes no further. It's a start, but as Sen. Wyden clearly realizes, there's a long way to go before Americans can trust the entities that collect data from us.
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Filed Under: clear, data, data brokers, ice, nctue, privacy, ron wyden, utility bills
Companies: reuters
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Re: Ron Wyden
It’s shit like this that made me write in his name for President 9 years ago.
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Re: Re: Ron Wyden
Damn, Sam, that's mean. What'd Ron ever do to you?
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That sound you hear is out_of_the_blue angrily grinding his teeth in furious self-righteous outrage.
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Based on their week long detention of a US Citizen in Tacoma....
Who had his passport card on him the entire time: Again. A US Citizen taken by ICE to a for profit Immigration jail, and only released after his freedom had been exploited, again, for profit, for a week.....
ICE is a gaggle of Human traffickers, nothing more, and your tax dollars pay for them.
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Do "Data Anonimization" next
Can we get a proper definition of the only data considered anonymized must be at least an aggregated function with a sine with at least ten entries mixed together instead of entries which may be cross-correlated?
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What a pleasant way to start the week
Oh noes, a horrible agency staffed by terrible people has one less source of information on people they shouldn't have had to begin with, truly what a tragedy...
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Re: Horrible agency staffed by Terrible people
... But this horrible ICE agency is merely an 'Agent' of Congress & Presidents -- who eternally support its horrible activities.
Therefore, our Congressmen & Presidents must also be Terrible People.
Everything ICE does is ultimately controlled by Congress & Presidents -- they are the root problem.
Top Federal officials are not your agents as a voting citizen in a nominal democracy -- those officials always have their own agenda.
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At least one person in Congress cares about the Fourth Amendment
We need more people like Ron Wyden (but maybe younger) in Congress. The US won't pass a proper privacy law until there are.
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Re: one person in Congress cares about 4th Amendment
yup, we need congressmen who pick and choose which BillofRights amendments they support or ignore, although their solemn oath of office permits no such thing.
for example, Wyden's long voting record strongly opposes the 2nd Amendment.
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Re: Re: one person in Congress cares about 4th Amendment
Name one congresscritter who supports all the Amendments, or even just the idea of individual civil liberties over authoritarian government supremacy in general.
And I mean actually supports, not just pays lip service to.
. . . I thought not.
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Re: Re: one person in Congress cares about 4th Amendment
"Wyden's long voting record strongly opposes the 2nd Amendment"
Does it? Or, does it merely suggest that maybe the restrictions it already has on it be adjusted to fit the world that exists around it? You already can't buy guns if you're a felon, and you're already not allowed to buy nuclear or chemical weapons. Reconsidering the existing limits is not opposing the entire amendment.
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Re: Re: one person in Congress cares about 4th Amendment
"...we need congressmen who pick and choose which BillofRights amendments they support or ignore, although their solemn oath of office permits no such thing."
You do realize that the constitution expressly allows congress to craft and adjust of amendments? That this is, in fact, the job of congress?
If Wyden feels an amendment is no longer acceptable in its current form then a suggestion to reword it, striking it, or adjusting it is in fact well within his job description.
How come every american who claims the authority of the constitution somehow turns out never to have actually read the damn thing? C'mon, people, it really isn't that hard.
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Re: At least one person in Congress cares about the Fourth Amend
Indeed, we need more people like him pushing back Big Brother.
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This doesn't mean that ICE can't get those records. It just means that they have to go through the courts to get them directly from the utilities.
If I understand the post correctly, the win is less "ICE doesn't get it" than "the entire world no longer gets it".
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Re:
Which also means that ICE is far less likely to ever get them. Going through the courts is more hassle, and generates a paper trail. While magistrates and judges have proven rather feckless is signing off on warrants, and this is likely to continue, the mere existence of the warrant means that ICE has to actually put pen to paper and write something about it.
Any small victory we can get should be celebrated, though I still hold a torch for that department's dishonorable discharge.
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Re:
No, because they can get it from Equifax—now with a court order instead of a wad of cash. Public utilities should never be sharing data with credit bureaus without legtimate consent—i.e., something better than "let us share your data, or live without water and electricity". Really, private companies should be held to this standard too.
Nobody ever asked these credit bureaus to track them to assess their creditworthiness. The bureaus just started doing it and managed to convince people "but how else would the world work?"—odd, because utilities, landlords, banks, etc. were profitable before Equifax and them existed. Sometimes that meant pre-paying (possibly a deposit) for certain services, which isn't a big deal because most people who get good Equifax ratings can afford that, and those who don't are screwed either way.
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Key phrase:
Good for Ron Wyden! We should all be glad for any movement we get in the right (privacy) direction. But we must not lose sight of just how small a step this is, and how long and how steep uphill the road ahead is, too.
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Re: Key phrase:
Anything short of abolishing ICE is not enough. But limiting ICE in any way we can is a move in the right direction.
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Trademark infringement
"It's still hoovering up location data from app developers who either don't know or don't care that this data is buyable through data brokers."
Don't be surprised if lawyers from Techtronic Industries (the parent company of The Hoover Company) with too much time on their hands would like to have a word with you about your use of their trademarked name.
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Re: Trademark infringement
hoovering up location data
You mean it's being stored in a big dam in Nevada and Arizona?
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Re: Re: Trademark infringement
That'd be a dam big reservoir of information if true...
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This is one of those times I'd like to be able to vote in Oregon. Wyden is one of these good politicians you wish all the others were.
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then you wonder Why
There isnt much protection On this data? NOPE.
It would be pretty easy to give a group a password, and let them into the system to Download it all.
And even explains how Terabytes of DATA can be stolen, and no one knows HOW, when, Anything.
Any corp could setup a server that required only certain verified Machines to connect.
And separating the Data into sections so that they cant get the Whole thing, in 1 Clump.
Then there came this idea that everyone NEEDS a credit card. Where if you run out of money you can always use the card at 14-20% interest, esp on over priced goods and food.
My credit card corp changed something. INSTED of being based on the Fed. They decided to use the top 4 banks in the USA. So insted of +10 to the Fed, which was 0%, those 4 banks were 6% and up.
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Fun Fact: ICE considers the entire USA to be within 100 miles of the border. Because space begins 100miles up.
seriously.
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