{"id":541,"date":"2024-11-11T09:31:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/your-phone-is-a-sleeper-agent-for-stalkers-and-fundamentalist-politicians\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T09:31:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:31:27","slug":"your-phone-is-a-sleeper-agent-for-stalkers-and-fundamentalist-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/your-phone-is-a-sleeper-agent-for-stalkers-and-fundamentalist-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Your phone is a sleeper agent for stalkers and fundamentalist politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For years, data brokers have abused Americans\u2019 most personal data in every way possible, selling people\u2019s identifying information to businesses, other individuals and even governments. Now, a string of news stories underscore how the industry\u2019s practices are increasingly endangering women\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

Data brokers are selling the ability to track phones that visit abortion clinics and follow them back across state lines, all the way to their owners\u2019 homes. All it takes for this kind of 24-hour surveillance is a credit card.\u00a0Given the creepy enthusiasm with which MAGA government officials are inserting themselves into women\u2019s health choices, these tracking tools present a pressing danger for women across the country.<\/p>\n

Again and again, MAGA politicians show that they will go to shameful lengths to control women\u2019s bodies.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0reports\u00a0<\/a>by\u00a0multiple news organizations<\/a>\u00a0last week<\/a>, the data broker Babel Street allowed a private investigator to use its Locate X tool to zero in on abortion clinics and other sensitive locations. While Babel Street advertises its tool as being for government use, in practice this private investigator received a weeklong trial subscription, apparently without any vetting whatsoever.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent years probing data broker malfeasance, and unfortunately this news wasn\u2019t surprising. My\u00a0investigations found that wireless companies<\/a>\u00a0let data brokers sell Americans\u2019 location information to bounty hunters, corrupt law enforcement officials and nearly anyone with a credit card. Earlier this year, I revealed that\u00a0data brokers helped anti-abortion activists send targeted misinformation about abortion<\/a>\u00a0to patients at 600 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. I discovered that\u00a0automakers sold drivers\u2019 location data and other records<\/a>\u00a0to data brokers for pennies. And I\u00a0successfully pushed utility companies<\/a>\u00a0to end their practice of giving away their customers\u2019 personal information to data brokers.<\/p>\n

Again and again, MAGA politicians show that they will go to shameful lengths to control women\u2019s bodies.\u00a0Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans have moved mountains to restrict the constitutional rights and freedoms of women, making it impossible for many women to live their lives free from government intrusion. They won\u2019t rest until there\u2019s a politician in every bedroom and exam room in America.<\/p>\n

But Americans shouldn\u2019t accept a reality where their phones are sleeper agents for stalkers and fundamentalist politicians to track women across the country. Here\u2019s how we can fight back.<\/p>\n

First, anyone who cares about women\u2019s rights needs to make themselves heard and vote for candidates who have a track record of protecting those rights. The\u00a0Dobbs\u00a0<\/em>decision to overturn women\u2019s right to choose was the culmination of a decadeslong far-right movement to take over the nation\u2019s courts. Democrats need to respond with the same amount of determination, which is why I introduced\u00a0the Judicial Modernization and Transparency Act<\/a>\u00a0to reform the court system and ensure our judges better represent American values.<\/p>\n

When it comes to violations of Americans\u2019 privacy, our country has reached a crisis point.<\/p>\n

Second, the executive branch should use the powers it already has to crack down on data brokers\u2019 sleazy behavior. At my urging, the Federal Trade Commission\u00a0has already started to go after some data brokers<\/a>\u00a0that sold location data collected from Americans\u2019 without their consent. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to announce its own regulations in the near future\u00a0to extend financial privacy rules to the industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

States can also act to protect their residents. Starting in 2026, Californians will be able to sign up for a new data broker registry, where with a single click they can require the brokers to delete their data and stop selling it in the future. The law that created that new privacy control, which will put tens of millions of Americans back in control of their own personal data, was modeled after legislation I wrote<\/a>. <\/strong>I encourage other states to follow California\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

Third, Congress needs to finally breach the corporate barricade that has blocked a strong consumer privacy law. I\u2019ve authored my own strong privacy bills, the Mind Your Own Business Act and\u00a0the Banning Surveillance Advertising\u00a0Act<\/a>. And in the coming months I plan to release two new bills:\u00a0one that will protect Americans\u2019 privacy by limiting how much data websites and apps can collect on Americans and preventing data brokers from amassing and selling that data, and another that will protect Americans from being spied on by their smart TVs and set-top boxes and having that data given away or sold to data brokers.<\/p>\n

Finally, it\u2019s notable that the vast majority of the phones tracked by Babel Street\u2019s Locate X tool used Google\u2019s Android operating system. Though Apple\u00a0changed its privacy settings in 2021\u00a0<\/a>to make it far easier for users to stop apps from hoovering up and selling their personal information, Google has failed to do the same. As a result, people who use Android phones are far more vulnerable to surveillance than people who use iPhones. It doesn\u2019t take a genius to understand why the largest online advertising company in the world does not want to make it easy for users to stop tracking by advertising companies and their data broker partners. Google could act immediately to limit data broker access to location information and cut this slimy industry off at the source.<\/p>\n

When it comes to violations of Americans\u2019 privacy, our country has reached a crisis point. The repeal of Roe has only heightened the stakes for women who want to make health decisions without a politician in their doctor\u2019s office or a stalker watching their phone. The good news is, there\u2019s no mystery about how to solve this problem. There\u2019s a clear path forward for protecting our privacy and safety that Americans should insist on from our government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sen. Ron Wyden<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ron Wyden, Oregon’s senior U.S. senator, is a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, data brokers have abused Americans\u2019 most personal data in every way possible, selling people\u2019s identifying information to businesses, other individuals and even governments. Now, a string of news stories underscore how the industry\u2019s practices are increasingly endangering women\u2019s safety. Data brokers are selling the ability to track phones that visit abortion clinics and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}