Native legislation enforcement companies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been utilizing an obscure cellphone monitoring device, at occasions with out search warrants, that provides them the ability to observe individuals’s actions months again in time, in response to public data and inside emails obtained by The Related Press.

Police have used “Fog Reveal” to go looking a whole lot of billions of data from 250 million cell units, and harnessed the info to create location analyses identified amongst legislation enforcement as “patterns of life,” in response to 1000’s of pages of data concerning the firm.

Offered by Virginia-based Fog Information Science LLC, Fog Reveal has been used since no less than 2018 in legal investigations starting from the homicide of a nurse in Arkansas to tracing the actions of a possible participant within the Jan. 6 rebellion on the Capitol. The device is never, if ever, talked about in courtroom data, one thing that protection attorneys say makes it tougher for them to correctly defend their purchasers in circumstances by which the expertise was used.

The corporate was developed by two former high-ranking Division of Homeland Safety officers below ex-President George W. Bush. It depends on promoting identification numbers, which Fog officers say are culled from fashionable cellphone apps corresponding to Waze, Starbucks and a whole lot of others that focus on adverts based mostly on an individual’s actions and pursuits, in response to police emails. That data is then offered to corporations like Fog.

“It’s kind of a mass surveillance program on a funds,” mentioned Bennett Cyphers, a particular advisor on the Digital Frontier Basis, a digital privateness rights advocacy group.

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This story, supported by the Pulitzer Heart for Disaster Reporting, is a part of an ongoing Related Press sequence, “Tracked,” that investigates the ability and penalties of selections pushed by algorithms on individuals’s on a regular basis lives.

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The paperwork and emails had been obtained by EFF by way of Freedom of Info Act requests. The group shared the recordsdata with The AP, which independently discovered that Fog offered its software program in about 40 contracts to almost two dozen companies, in response to GovSpend, an organization that retains tabs on authorities spending. The data and AP’s reporting present the primary public account of the in depth use of Fog Reveal by native police, in response to analysts and authorized specialists who scrutinize such applied sciences.

“Native legislation enforcement is on the entrance strains of trafficking and lacking individuals circumstances, but these departments are sometimes behind in expertise adoption,” Matthew Broderick, a Fog managing companion, mentioned in an electronic mail. “We fill a niche for underfunded and understaffed departments.”

Due to the secrecy surrounding Fog, nonetheless, there are scant particulars about its use and most legislation enforcement companies gained’t focus on it, elevating issues amongst privateness advocates that it violates the Fourth Modification to the U.S. Structure, which protects towards unreasonable search and seizure.

What distinguishes Fog Reveal from different cellphone location applied sciences utilized by police is that it follows the units by way of their promoting IDs, distinctive numbers assigned to every system. These numbers don’t comprise the identify of the telephone’s consumer, however may be traced to properties and workplaces to assist police set up pattern-of-life analyses.

“The aptitude that it had for citing simply anyone in an space whether or not they had been in public or at residence appeared to me to be a really clear violation of the Fourth Modification,” mentioned Davin Corridor, a former crime information evaluation supervisor for the Greensboro, North Carolina Police Division. “I simply really feel offended and betrayed and lied to.”

Corridor resigned in late 2020 after months of voicing issues concerning the division’s use of Fog to police attorneys and the town council.

Whereas Greensboro officers acknowledged Fog’s use and initially defended it, the police division mentioned it allowed its subscription to run out earlier this yr as a result of it didn’t “independently profit investigations.”

However federal, state and native police companies across the U.S. proceed to make use of Fog with little or no public accountability. Native police companies have been enticed by Fog’s reasonably priced worth: it might begin as little as $7,500 a yr. And a few departments that license it have shared entry with different close by legislation enforcement companies, the emails present.

Police departments additionally like how shortly they’ll entry detailed location data from Fog. Geofence warrants, which faucet into GPS and different sources to trace a tool, are accessed by acquiring such information from corporations, like Google or Apple. This requires police to acquire a warrant and ask the tech corporations for the precise information they need, which may take days or perhaps weeks.

Utilizing Fog’s information, which the corporate claims is anonymized, police can geofence an space or search by a selected system’s advert ID numbers, in response to a consumer settlement obtained by AP. However, Fog maintains that “now we have no method of linking indicators again to a selected system or proprietor,” in response to a gross sales consultant who emailed the California Freeway Patrol in 2018, after a lieutenant requested whether or not the device might be legally used.

Regardless of such privateness assurances, the data present that legislation enforcement can use Fog’s information as a clue to seek out figuring out data. “There isn’t any (private data) linked to the (advert ID),” wrote a Missouri official about Fog in 2019. “But when we’re good at what we do, we should always be capable to determine the proprietor.”

Federal oversight of corporations like Fog is an evolving authorized panorama. On Monday, the Federal Commerce Fee sued a knowledge dealer known as Kochava that, like Fog, gives its purchasers with promoting IDs that authorities say can simply be used to seek out the place a cell system consumer lives, which violates guidelines the fee enforces. And there are payments earlier than Congress now that, if handed, would regulate the business.

Fog’s Broderick mentioned in an electronic mail that the corporate doesn’t have entry to individuals’s private data, and attracts from “commercially obtainable information with out restrictions to make use of,” from information brokers “that legitimately buy information from apps in accordance with their authorized agreements.” The corporate refused to share details about what number of police companies it really works with.

“We’re assured Legislation Enforcement has the accountable management, constraints, and political steering on the municipal, state, and federal stage to make sure that any legislation enforcement device and methodology is appropriately utilized in accordance with the legal guidelines of their respective jurisdictions,” Broderick mentioned.

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Kevin Metcalf, a Washington County, Arkansas prosecutor, mentioned he has used Fog Reveal with no warrant, particularly in “exigent circumstances.” In these circumstances, the legislation gives a warrant exemption when a crime-in-process endangers individuals or an officer.

Metcalf additionally leads the Nationwide Little one Safety Job Pressure, a nonprofit that combats baby exploitation and trafficking. Fog is listed on its web site as a job pressure sponsor and an organization government chairs the nonprofit’s board. Metcalf mentioned Fog has been invaluable to cracking lacking youngsters circumstances and homicides.

“We push the bounds, however we do them in a method that we goal the unhealthy guys,” he mentioned. “Time is of the essence in these conditions. We are able to’t wait on the normal search warrant route.”

Fog was used efficiently within the homicide case of 25-year-old nurse Sydney Sutherland, who had final been seen jogging close to Newport, Arkansas earlier than she disappeared, Metcalf mentioned.

Police had little proof to go on after they discovered her telephone in a ditch, so Metcalf mentioned he shared his company’s entry to Fog with the U.S. Marshals Service to determine which different units had been close by on the time she was killed. He mentioned Fog helped lead authorities to arrest a farmer in Sutherland’s rape and homicide in August 2020, however its use was not documented in courtroom data reviewed by AP.

Cyphers, who led EFF’s public data work, mentioned there hasn’t been any earlier report of corporations promoting this sort of granular information on to native legislation enforcement.

“We’re seeing counties with lower than 100,000 individuals the place the sheriff is utilizing this extraordinarily excessive tech, extraordinarily invasive, secretive surveillance device to chase down native crime,” Cyphers mentioned.

One such buyer is the sheriff’s workplace in rural Rockingham County, North Carolina, inhabitants 91,000 and simply north of Greensboro, the place Corridor nonetheless lives. The county purchased a one-year license for $9,000 final yr and lately renewed it.

“Rockingham County is tiny by way of inhabitants. It by no means ceases to amaze me how small companies will scoop up instruments that they only completely don’t want, and no one wants this one,” Corridor mentioned.

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Kevin Suthard confirmed the division lately renewed its license however declined to supply specifics about using Fog Reveal or how the workplace protects people’ rights.

“As a result of it will then be much less efficient as criminals might be cognizant that now we have the system and modify their fee of the crimes accordingly. Make sense?” Suthard mentioned.

Fog has aggressively marketed its device to police, even beta testing it with legislation enforcement, data present. The Dallas Police Division purchased a Fog license in February after getting a free trial and “seeing an illustration and listening to of success tales from the corporate,” Senior Cpl. Melinda Gutierrez, a division spokeswoman, mentioned in an electronic mail.

Fog’s device is accessed by way of an online portal. Investigators can enter a criminal offense scene’s coordinates into the database, which brings again search outcomes displaying a tool’s Fog ID, which relies on its distinctive advert ID quantity.

Police can see which system IDs had been discovered close to the placement of the crime. Detectives or different officers also can search the placement for IDs going ahead from the time of the crime and again no less than 180 days, in response to the corporate’s consumer license settlement. However, Fog’s information can return so far as June 2017, in response to emails from a Fog consultant to Florida and California legislation enforcement companies.

Whereas the info doesn’t straight establish who owns a tool, the corporate typically provides legislation enforcement data it wants to attach it to addresses and different clues that assist detectives determine individuals’s identities, in response to firm representatives’ emails.

It’s unclear how Fog makes these connections, however an organization it refers to as its “information companion” known as Venntel, Inc. has entry to a good larger trove of customers’ cell information.

Venntel is a big dealer that has equipped location information to companies corresponding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI. The Division of Homeland Safety’s watchdog is at present investigating how U.S. border brokers used Venntel information to trace individuals’s areas contained in the U.S. with no search warrant. The corporate additionally has confronted congressional inquiries about privateness issues tied to federal legislation enforcement companies’ use of its information.

Venntel and Fog work intently collectively to help police detectives throughout investigations, emails present. Their advertising and marketing brochures are almost an identical, too, and Venntel employees has really useful Fog to legislation enforcement, in response to the emails. Venntel mentioned “the confidential nature of our enterprise relationships” prevented them from responding to AP’s particular questions, and Fog wouldn’t touch upon the connection.

Whereas Fog says in its advertising and marketing supplies that it collects information from 1000’s of apps, like Starbucks and Waze, corporations will not be at all times conscious of who’s utilizing their information. Venntel and Fog can accumulate billions of information factors stuffed with detailed data as a result of many apps embed invisible monitoring software program that observe customers’ habits. This software program additionally lets the apps promote personalized adverts which might be focused to an individual’s present location. In flip, information brokers’ software program can hoover up private information that can be utilized for different functions. Fog didn’t particularly say the way it acquired the info from Starbucks and Waze.

For his or her half, Starbucks and Waze denied any relationship to Fog. Starbucks mentioned it had not given permission to its enterprise companions to share buyer data with Fog.

“Starbucks has not authorised Advert ID information generated by our app for use on this method by Fog Information Science LLC. In our evaluation thus far, now we have no relationship with this firm,” mentioned Megan Adams, a Starbucks spokesperson.

“Now we have by no means had a relationship with Fog Information Science, haven’t labored with them in any capability, and haven’t shared data with them,” a Waze spokesperson mentioned.

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Fog Information Science LLC is headquartered in a nondescript brick constructing in Leesburg, Virginia. It additionally has associated entities in New Jersey, Ohio and Texas.

It was based in 2016 by Robert Liscouski, who led the Division of Homeland Safety’s Nationwide Cyber Safety Division within the George W. Bush period. His colleague, Broderick, is a former U.S. Marine brigadier normal who ran DHS’ tech hub, the Homeland Safety Operations Heart, throughout Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A Home bipartisan committee report cited Broderick amongst others for failing to coordinate a swift federal response to the lethal hurricane. Broderick resigned from DHS shortly thereafter.

In advertising and marketing supplies, Fog additionally has touted its means to supply police “predictive analytics,” a buzzword typically used to explain high-tech policing instruments that purport to foretell crime hotspots. Liscouski and one other Fog official have labored at corporations centered on predictive analytics, machine studying and software program platforms supporting synthetic intelligence.

“It’s able to delivering each forensic and predictive analytics and close to real-time insights on the each day actions of the individuals recognized with these cell units,” reads an electronic mail asserting a Fog coaching final yr for members of the Nationwide Fusion Heart Affiliation, which represents a community of intelligence-sharing partnerships created after the Sept. 11 assaults.

Fog’s Broderick mentioned the corporate had not invested in predictive purposes, and supplied no particulars about any makes use of the device had for predicting crime.

Regardless of privateness advocates’ issues about warrantless surveillance, Fog Reveal has caught on with native and state police forces. It’s been utilized in quite a lot of high-profile legal circumstances, together with one which was the topic of the tv program “48 Hours.”

In 2017, a world-renowned unique snake breeder was discovered useless, mendacity in a pool of blood in his reptile breeding facility in rural Missouri. Police initially thought the breeder, Ben Renick, might need died from a toxic snake chunk. However the proof quickly pointed to homicide.

Throughout its investigation, emails present the Missouri State Freeway Patrol used Fog’s portal to seek for cellphones at Renick’s residence and breeding facility and zeroed in on a cell system. Working with Fog, investigators used the info to establish the telephone proprietor’s id: it was the Renicks’ babysitter.

Police had been capable of log the babysitter’s whereabouts over time to create a sample of life evaluation.

It turned out to be a dead-end lead. Renick’s spouse, Lynlee, later was charged and convicted of the homicide.

Prosecutors didn’t cite Fog in an inventory of different instruments they used within the investigation, in response to trial reveals examined by the AP.

However Missouri officers appeared happy with Fog’s capabilities, although it didn’t straight result in an arrest. “It was attention-grabbing to see that the system did decide up a tool that was completely within the space that day. Too unhealthy it didn’t belong to a suspect!”a Missouri State Freeway Patrol analyst wrote in an electronic mail to Fog.

In one other high-profile legal probe, data present the FBI requested state intelligence officers in Iowa for assist with Fog because it investigated potential individuals within the occasions on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Not definitive however nonetheless ready to speak issues over with a FOG rep,” wrote Justin Parker, deputy director of the Iowa Division of Public Security, in an electronic mail to an FBI official in September 2021. It was unclear from the emails if Fog’s information factored into an arrest, and neither the FBI nor Iowa officers would remark.

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Metcalf, the Arkansas prosecutor, has argued towards congressional efforts to require search warrants when utilizing applied sciences like Fog Reveal.

He believes Individuals have given up any affordable expectation of privateness after they use free apps and likens EFF’s objections to tech like Fog to a “cult of privateness.”

“I believe persons are going to need to decide on whether or not we would like all this free expertise, we would like all this free stuff, we would like all of the selfies,” he mentioned. “However we will’t have that and on the similar time say, ‘I’m a personal particular person, so you may’t have a look at any of that.’ That simply appears loopy.”

Though he’s not an official Fog worker, Metcalf mentioned he would step in to guide coaching periods together with the device for federal prosecutors, federal companies and police, together with the Chicago Police Division, the emails present.

That form of hands-on service and word-of-mouth advertising and marketing in tight-knit legislation enforcement circles appears to have helped improve Fog’s recognition.

The Maryland State Police is among the many many companies which have had contracts for Fog Reveal, and data present investigators believed it had loads of potential.

“Firms have receptors throughout. Malls, buying facilities, and many others. They’re throughout you,” wrote Sgt. John Bedell of the Felony Enforcement Division, in an electronic mail to a colleague. The company bought a yr of entry to Fog in 2018.

“Image getting a suspect’s telephone then within the extraction with the ability to see everyplace they’d been within the final 18 months plotted on a map you filter by date ranges,” wrote Bedell. “The success lies within the secrecy.”

Elena Russo, a spokesperson for the company, confirmed it had a Fog license beforehand however that it had lapsed. “Sadly, it was not useful in fixing any crimes,” she wrote in an electronic mail.

Nonetheless, as extra native policing companies join Fog, some elected officers mentioned they’ve been left in the dead of night. A number of officers mentioned there wasn’t sufficient data to understand what companies Fog really gives.

“Who is that this firm? What are the monitor data? What are the privateness protections?” requested Anaheim council member Jose Moreno, remembering his confusion about Fog throughout a 2020 council assembly. “That evening our chief had little or no data for us.”

In Anaheim, the Fog license was paid for by a federal “City Space Safety Initiative,” DHS grants that assist localities fund efforts to forestall terrorism. A police spokesman mentioned the division has not used it.

Protection attorneys fear there are few authorized restrictions on legislation enforcement’s use of location information.

It’s a niche police companies exploit, and infrequently don’t disclose in courtroom, mentioned Michael Value, litigation director of the Nationwide Affiliation of Felony Protection Legal professionals’ Fourth Modification Heart.

“(Fog) is exceedingly uncommon to see within the wild as a result of the cops typically don’t get warrants,” mentioned Value.

“Even in the event you do ask for (data) typically they are saying ‘We don’t know what you might be speaking about.’”

Privateness advocates fear Fog’s location monitoring might be put to different novel makes use of, like protecting tabs on individuals who search abortions in states the place it’s now unlawful. These issues had been heightened when a Nebraska lady was charged in August with serving to her teenage daughter finish a being pregnant after investigators acquired maintain of their Fb messages.

Authorities’s use of location information continues to be being weighed by the courts, too. In 2018, the Supreme Courtroom dominated that police usually want a warrant to have a look at data that reveal the place cellphone customers have been.

Practically two years after strolling off the crime information supervisor job with the Greensboro police pressure, Davin Corridor nonetheless worries about police surveillance in neighboring communities.

“Anybody with that login data can do as many searches as they need,” Corridor mentioned. “I don’t imagine the police have earned the belief to make use of that, and I don’t imagine it must be authorized.”

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AP Nationwide Author Allen G. Breed contributed from Greensboro, North Carolina. Dearen reported from New York and Burke reported from San Francisco.

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This reporting was produced in collaboration with researchers Janine Graham, Nicole Waddick and Jane Yang in addition to the College of California, Berkeley’s Human Rights Heart Investigations Lab and College of Legislation.

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Comply with Garance Burke and Jason Dearen on Twitter at @garanceburke and @jhdearen. Contact AP’s international investigative workforce at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/ideas/