FCC Commissioner Demands Answers from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon on Phone Location Data

On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel demanded answers from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon on their sale of customers’ phone location information to data aggregators. As Motherboard has shown in multiple investigations, this data, which sometimes included highly precise assisted-GPS data, ended up in the hands of bounty hunters, bail bondsmen, or private investigators.

The demands are the latest move to pressure telcom companies, who said they would stop the sale of location data to third parties after Motherboard’s coverage. AT&T and T-Mobile previously told Motherboard that sale has ended, and Sprint said it would stop at the end of May.

But there are still serious concerns about how that data may have been stored and accessed. The letters from Commissioner Rosenworcel to the heads of each telco asked that the companies clarify whether data aggregators or others were allowed to save phone location data they received, and what steps the telcos are going to take to ensure the deletion of any shared data.

“The public still has very little detail about how much geolocation data is being saved and stored—including in ways that may be far too accessible to others,” the letters signed by Rosenworcel read.

Do you know anything else about location data selling? You can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

In January, Motherboard paid a source $300 to locate a T-Mobile phone. That was possible because T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint had all sold access to their customers’ location data to a network of middleman companies, before ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and bail bondsmen. Motherboard also covered how another data broker used to provide Verizon location data to the bail industry as well.

Another investigation, based on leaked data, showed that one company had provided phone location data to hundreds of bounty hunter clients. That leaked data did indicate that some information may have been stored over time; the data included lists of phone numbers that had been located or ‘pinged,’ stretching back years.

The location information included assisted-GPS data which is usually reserved to locate cell phones that dial 911 in an emergency.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72419/fcc-commissioner-demands-answers-from-att-tmobile-sprint-verizon-on-phone-location.html

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/j5wmzg/fcc-commissioner-demands-answers-from-atandt-t-mobile-sprint-verizon-on-phone-location-data

Judicial Watch: Top Hillary Clinton Aide Admits Under Oath that He and Clinton Used Unsecure Personal Email for Official State Department Business

Insists that monitoring Clinton’s illicit use of private email ‘wasn’t really part of my job,’ but adds, ‘I wish she had used a State Department account’

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released the transcript of a court-ordered deposition of Jacob “Jake” Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff when she was secretary of state, in which the top staffer admits that both he and Clinton used her unsecure non-government email system to conduct official State Department business. A full transcript of the deposition is available here.

Judicial Watch’s court-ordered discovery centered upon whether Clinton intentionally attempted to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by using a non-government email system and whether the State Department adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request.

In the questioning, Sullivan admitted that he had used his personal Gmail account at times for State Department business but denied that he had sent classified information to Secretary Clinton’s unsecured personal system.

After Judicial Watch pointed out that on January 26, 2010, Sullivan sent a classified email with the subject line “call sheet,” Sullivan testified: “When I sent this email, my best judgment was that none of the material in it was classified, and I felt comfortable sending the email on an unclassified system. The material has subsequently been upclassified but at the time that I sent it, I did not believe that it was classified.”

Sullivan said in the deposition that he had not been concerned about Clinton’s use of a non-government email account, because it was not part of his job:

Like Secretary Clinton has said herself, I wish she had used a State Department account. It wasn’t really part of my job to be thinking about Secretary Clinton’s emails so I don’t think I sort of fell down directly in my job, but do I wish I had thought of it during the time we were at State. Of course. I mean, what human being at this point wouldn’t have thought of that?

Sullivan’s deposition is part of United States District Judge Royce C. Lamberth’s order for senior officials — including Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan, and FBI official E.W. Priestap – to respond under oath to Judicial Watch questions.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/102119/

Judicial Watch Sues Health and Human Services for Documents on Human Fetal Tissue Used in ‘Humanized Mice’ Testing

(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) documents about the purchase and use of human fetal tissue obtained from abortion clinics that was used by FDA researchers in “humanized mice” testing.

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department Health and Human Services (No. 1:19-cv-00876)) after HHS failed to respond adequately to a September 28, 2018, FOIA request for:

All contracts and related documentation between FDA and Advanced Biosciences Resources (ABR) for the provision of human fetal tissue to be used in humanized mice research.

All records reflecting the disbursement of funds to ABR for the provision of human fetal tissue to be used in humanized mice research.

All guidelines and procedural documents provided to ABR by FDA relating to the acquisition and extraction of human fetal tissue for its provision to the FDA for humanized mice research.

All communications between FDA officials and employees and representatives of ABR related to the provision by ABR to the FDA of human fetal tissue for the purpose of humanized mice research.

The FDA on July 25, 2018, signed a contract to acquire human fetal tissue to transplant into “humanized mice” so that the mice would have a human immune system.

The Trump administration in September 2018 halted the FDA’s contract with Advanced Biosciences Resources, which sold fetal tissue it obtained from abortion clinics to the FDA for use in animal testing. Additionally, HHS said in a statement on September 24, 2018 it was “conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations.”

Members of Congress, in a September 17, 2018, letter to FDA Commission Scott Gottlieb, raised concern over the FDA’s signing on July 25, 2018 of a $15,900 contract with ABR. It was the eighth contract between FDA and ABR since 2012.

In the letter, the Congress members noted that separate 2016 investigations by the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives and the Senate Judiciary Committee found that ABR paid abortion clinics $60 per “single aborted fetus” and sold the body parts to researchers at fees of $325 per “specimen” (brain, eyes, liver, thymus and lungs).

“Why are U.S. taxpayer dollars being used to contract with a company alleged to have trafficked in baby body parts? Judicial Watch is demanding a full accounting of the procedures as well as the funds used in this disturbing experimentation,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-sues-health-and-human-services-for-documents-on-human-fetal-tissue-used-in-humanized-mice-testing/