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The authorities are investing millions in controversial surveillance technology.
In June, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) signed a five-year, nearly $5.3 million contract with PenLink to acquire a controversial surveillance system called Tangles. According to the Texas Observer through a public information request, the contract is nearly double the company's previous agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which was $2.7 million for two years.
Tangles is an AI-powered platform that collects data from open, deep, and dark segments of the internet. The main object of criticism from digital privacy advocates was an additional feature of the platform, WebLoc, which allows users to track the movement of mobile devices in a given virtual area using "geofencing" technology. Such features do not require a search warrant or subpoena, which is of particular concern to human rights defenders.
Device tracking services are based on location data and other personal information from phones through in-app ads. Surveillance technology companies buy this data from brokers and sell access to it as part of their products. In this way, WebLoc can be used to obtain the mobile advertising ID of a device, which allows mobile devices to be tracked and identified in the advertising marketing ecosystem.
Although the mobile advertising ID is considered anonymous, it can easily be correlated with other data to determine the owner of the device. If companies have information about the home address where the device is often located, it is easy to identify a person using supposedly anonymous data.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police must have a warrant to obtain phone location data from service providers such as AT&T and Verizon. However, companies selling location data through brokers claim that mobile ad IDs are anonymous and do not require a warrant. Nate Wesler, deputy director of the Free Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), called these excuses unfounded, arguing that the main purpose of such companies is to track the movements of phones and determine their location.
The use of services such as Tangles by the Texas Department of Public Safety raises data privacy concerns similar to those raised in Carpenter v. USA. Location data collected through apps can be even more invasive than data collected from communication service providers, Wesler says.
Tangles was developed by Cobwebs Technologies, a company founded in Israel in 2014 and acquired by PenLink in 2023. The company's products are declared as tools to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, but Meta* accused Cobwebs Technologies of providing surveillance services for hire. In 2021, Meta* banned accounts associated with Cobwebs, alleging that they were used to spy on activists and opposition politicians in countries such as Hong Kong and Mexico.
Since 2021, Tangles has been used in Texas as part of Operation Lone Star, initiated by Governor Greg Abbott to strengthen border security measures. DPS was initially awarded a $200,000 contract to use Tangles as an "emergency procurement" without a public tender. In the following years, the contract expanded, reaching more than $400k in 2023. The new five-year contract, designed for the period from 2024 to 2029, will cost the state a million dollars annually.
DPS argues that the use of Tangles is necessary to identify and prevent potential threats of mass attacks and terrorism, citing the incidents in El Paso and Midland-Odessa. The documents do not mention the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, when the actions of DPS officers were widely criticized.
At the moment, there is no information on how effectively DPS used Tangles and whether this software helped prevent any mass attacks. Questions about how exactly Tangles are used remain unanswered, as DPS has not provided further information on the matter.
Critics of the use of such technologies emphasize that despite the significant costs and invasion of privacy, there is no conclusive evidence that such services significantly help investigations or solve a large number of cases. Many government agencies have already refused to buy products that use large amounts of location data, considering such costs unjustified.
Source
In June, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) signed a five-year, nearly $5.3 million contract with PenLink to acquire a controversial surveillance system called Tangles. According to the Texas Observer through a public information request, the contract is nearly double the company's previous agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which was $2.7 million for two years.
Tangles is an AI-powered platform that collects data from open, deep, and dark segments of the internet. The main object of criticism from digital privacy advocates was an additional feature of the platform, WebLoc, which allows users to track the movement of mobile devices in a given virtual area using "geofencing" technology. Such features do not require a search warrant or subpoena, which is of particular concern to human rights defenders.
Device tracking services are based on location data and other personal information from phones through in-app ads. Surveillance technology companies buy this data from brokers and sell access to it as part of their products. In this way, WebLoc can be used to obtain the mobile advertising ID of a device, which allows mobile devices to be tracked and identified in the advertising marketing ecosystem.
Although the mobile advertising ID is considered anonymous, it can easily be correlated with other data to determine the owner of the device. If companies have information about the home address where the device is often located, it is easy to identify a person using supposedly anonymous data.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police must have a warrant to obtain phone location data from service providers such as AT&T and Verizon. However, companies selling location data through brokers claim that mobile ad IDs are anonymous and do not require a warrant. Nate Wesler, deputy director of the Free Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), called these excuses unfounded, arguing that the main purpose of such companies is to track the movements of phones and determine their location.
The use of services such as Tangles by the Texas Department of Public Safety raises data privacy concerns similar to those raised in Carpenter v. USA. Location data collected through apps can be even more invasive than data collected from communication service providers, Wesler says.
Tangles was developed by Cobwebs Technologies, a company founded in Israel in 2014 and acquired by PenLink in 2023. The company's products are declared as tools to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, but Meta* accused Cobwebs Technologies of providing surveillance services for hire. In 2021, Meta* banned accounts associated with Cobwebs, alleging that they were used to spy on activists and opposition politicians in countries such as Hong Kong and Mexico.
Since 2021, Tangles has been used in Texas as part of Operation Lone Star, initiated by Governor Greg Abbott to strengthen border security measures. DPS was initially awarded a $200,000 contract to use Tangles as an "emergency procurement" without a public tender. In the following years, the contract expanded, reaching more than $400k in 2023. The new five-year contract, designed for the period from 2024 to 2029, will cost the state a million dollars annually.
DPS argues that the use of Tangles is necessary to identify and prevent potential threats of mass attacks and terrorism, citing the incidents in El Paso and Midland-Odessa. The documents do not mention the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, when the actions of DPS officers were widely criticized.
At the moment, there is no information on how effectively DPS used Tangles and whether this software helped prevent any mass attacks. Questions about how exactly Tangles are used remain unanswered, as DPS has not provided further information on the matter.
Critics of the use of such technologies emphasize that despite the significant costs and invasion of privacy, there is no conclusive evidence that such services significantly help investigations or solve a large number of cases. Many government agencies have already refused to buy products that use large amounts of location data, considering such costs unjustified.
Source
