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Recode Daily

Share your location with ICE?

Recode Daily

Recode

Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Private companies have long used your phone’s location data for advertising. Now we know the federal government is using it to enforce the border. Featuring @ByronTau @shiringhaffary Links to resources discussed: Federal Agencies Use Cellphone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement The “smarter” wall: How drones, sensors, and AI are patrolling the border Host: Arielle Duhaime-Ross (@adrs), host and lead reporter of Reset About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Follow Us: Newsletter: Recode Daily Twitter: @Recode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Your phone is probably the most intimate piece of technology you own.

0:10.0

It spends more time with you than your family or friends or coworkers or maybe even your partner.

0:16.0

It's with you on the subway, it's with you in the car, it probably goes with you to the bathroom.

0:21.0

And when you sleep, it sleeps next to you,

0:24.2

on your nightstand waiting to wake you up.

0:26.5

Your phone is also a snitch.

0:31.0

When you let it, your phone gives away your location to apps that need it, like a weather app.

0:37.0

And in some cases, when you're done figuring out whether you need to bring an umbrella,

0:41.0

apps will keep taking your location data and sending it off.

0:45.8

That data has a second life on secondary markets, where marketers and consulting companies

0:51.2

lap it up.

0:59.0

And now the federal government has access to this location data too, and they're using it to enforce the border.

1:02.0

I'm Ariel Dum Ross. This is reset.

1:07.0

Byron Tao, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, you and your colleague Michelle Hackman

1:18.5

published a report last week that the federal government is using cell phone location data for immigration enforcement.

1:25.4

What kind of data are we talking about?

1:27.0

Well, we're talking about data that's usually collected through apps or online display

1:31.5

ads that reveal the user's location.

1:34.7

So this is a big pool of data that marketing companies and data brokers control and often make

1:41.3

available for resale and reuse.

1:43.5

So you're talking about advertisements and you're also talking about apps.

1:48.0

Let's just say I look at my phone, what kind of apps typically would gather this kind of information and how would I encounter these

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