Fog Reveal is a tracking tool that aggregates location data from mobile apps. It is a product of FOG Data Science.

FOG Data Science

FOG Data Science is a limited liability company based in Virginia. It was founded in 2016 by two former United States Department of Homeland Security officials. Matthew Broderick, managing partner at the company, was director of operations for the DHS from 2005 to 2006.

Functionality

FOG Data Science purchases commercially available location data from Virginia-based company Venntel, collected from hundreds of mobile apps that sell information on user interests and movements, including the apps of

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

and Waze. The information is derived from advertising IDs, unique user IDs assigned to mobile devices allowing advertisers to track people's movements, habits, and usage of apps. Subscriptions to the service cost at least $7,500 per year. While the data is anonymized, officials have commented that competent law enforcement could use the information to identify individuals. According to FOG Data Science partner Matthew Broderick, their historical data profiles go back three years.

Use by law enforcement

Fog Reveal is used by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in the United States, since at least 2018. Documents procured by the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

through the

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revealed that FOG Data Science had 40 contracts with "nearly two dozen agencies," including the

Dallas Police Department The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...

and the Rockingham County, North Carolina sheriff's office. The software has been used to track individuals without requiring a search warrant. According to a 2022 Associated Press investigation supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, law enforcement agencies used Fog Reveal "to search hundreds of billions of records from 250 million mobile devices, and harnessed the data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as 'patterns of life.'"

Reception

Privacy advocates raised concerns that the use of Fog Reveal by law enforcement agencies could constitute an unreasonable search and seizure, violating the

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, it sets requirements for issuing warrants: warrants must be issued by a judge o ...

. Electronic Frontier Foundation adviser Bennett Cyphers described the software as "sort of a

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

program on a budget."

References

External links

Fog Reveal log-inArchived

Fog Revealed: A Guided Tour of How Cops Can Browse Your Location Data

Law enforcement databases in the United States Mass intelligence-gathering systems Mass surveillance industry Surveillance databases