Source URL: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-tangle-cobwebs/
Source: Hacker News
Title: Texas State Police Gear Up for Expansion of Surveillance Tech
Feedly Summary: Comments
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text discusses a controversial five-year contract signed by the Texas Department of Public Safety for a surveillance tool known as Tangles, which uses artificial intelligence to gather data from various web sources. The tool raises serious privacy concerns, especially regarding the usage of mobile ad IDs and the implications of geofencing without warrants. The contract highlights the intersection of technology, law enforcement, and digital privacy, emphasizing the potential for misuse and the need for stringent regulations and oversight.
Detailed Description:
The text details the acquisition of an AI-powered surveillance tool named Tangles by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), raising significant concerns over privacy and civil liberties. Key points from the text include:
– **Background and Funding:** The DPS signed a near $5.3 million contract with PenLink for Tangles, which is significantly larger than its previous contracts with federal agencies like ICE. This tool is designed for monitoring via a “geofencing” capability that allows users to track mobile devices in selected areas without a warrant.
– **Tools and Techniques:**
– Tangles scrapes data from the open, deep, and dark web, collecting personal information without user consent.
– Its feature, WebLoc, allows the tracking of mobile devices based on their location data derived from mobile ad identifiers.
– **Privacy Implications:**
– Advocacy groups express concern that the data collected can be easily decontextualized, raising the risk of identifying individuals without their consent.
– Previous court rulings, such as Carpenter v. United States, established the need for warrants for accessing cell phone location data, yet similar protections seem inadequate for data harvested from apps.
– **Criticism and Reactions:**
– Digital rights activists argue that the use of personal data without consent violates privacy rights and lacks transparency.
– Legislators express potential concerns over Fourth Amendment violations and the ongoing expansion of governmental surveillance capabilities.
– Questions are raised about the effectiveness of such tools in preventing crime, with suggestions that the invasive nature of these technologies outweighs their benefits.
– **Global Usage and Ethical Concerns:**
– The text mentions the international deployment of Tangles by law enforcement agencies in multiple countries, intensifying concerns about human rights abuses.
– Historical context illustrates previous backlash against surveillance companies, including actions taken by Meta against Cobwebs Technologies, the parent company of Tangles, for their involvement in unwarranted data collection.
– **Calls for Regulatory Oversight:**
– Experts highlight the urgent need for modernized legal frameworks to address the ethical and practical challenges of surveillance technologies and data privacy.
– There’s active discussion in the legislative domain around setting limits on the utilization of such surveillance technologies to protect civil liberties.
This text serves as a critical call to action for security professionals to scrutinize the evolving relationship between technology, law enforcement, and individual privacy rights. The implications for data protection, regulation, and ethical practices are paramount as organizations navigate emerging technologies in an increasingly monitored society.