In June, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) signed an acquisition plan for a 5-year, nearly $5.3 million contract for a controversial surveillance tool called Tangles from tech firm PenLink, according to records obtained by the Texas Observer through a public information request. The deal is nearly twice as large as the company’s $2.7 million two-year contract with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Tangles is an artificial intelligence-powered web platform that scrapes information from the open, deep, and dark web. Tangles’ premier add-on feature, WebLoc, is controversial among digital privacy advocates. Any client who purchases access to WebLoc can track different mobile devices’ movements in a specific, virtual area selected by the user, through a capability called “geofencing.” Users of software like Tangles can do this without a search warrant or subpoena. (In a high-profile ruling, the Fifth Circuit recently held that police cannot compel companies like Google to hand over data obtained through geofencing.) Device-tracking services rely on location pings and other personal data pulled from smartphones, usually via in-app advertisers. Surveillance tech companies then buy this information from data brokers and sell access to it as part of their products.
WebLoc can even be used to access a device’s mobile ad ID, a string of numbers and letters that acts as a unique identifier for mobile devices in the ad marketing ecosystem, according to a US Office of Naval Intelligence procurement notice.
Wolfie Christl, a public interest researcher and digital rights activist based in Vienna, Austria, argues that data collected for a specific purpose, such as navigation or dating apps, should not be used by different parties for unrelated reasons. “It’s a disaster,” Christl told the Observer. “It’s the largest possible imaginable decontextualization of data. … This cannot be how our future digital society looks like.”
This is something that was going to happen eventually it’s just kind of ironic that it’s a deep red state going for government surveillance like this
Nothing says “small government” and “freedom” quite like mass surveillance.
Red states have more poor, desperate people with guns so better keep them from getting uppity.
Every accusation is a confession. Always.
Totally on brand really. Republicans want to eliminate white collar crime (by never prosecuting it) and catch 110% of blue collar crimes.
Should gather Abbott’s device id and his families, and post all of their data in a constant stream of location, search results, and such. Soon as his and his families families data is being posted they’ll rethink it as a privacy issue.
But doxing is illegal 🤪
Isn’t the US already a surveillance country?
Not to this extent.
Big brother in action. Got to keep those women in line. /s
Texas reeks of freedom.
Will they finally see or hear me say
FUCK GREG ABBOTT
I hope they can, I’m doing it as hard as I can …
Remember that one time in Batman where they built a mass surveillance program using phones and decided it was so morally objectionable they immediately destroyed it after?
EFF recommendation on Ad Tracking: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now
Freedom rations are going up this week from 10 to 8!
Because Laredo wasn’t dystopian enough already.
nobody has ever said “remember that good thing that came out of texas”.
If it’s not food, then yeah, we’re setting all the wrong precedents.
Y’all aren’t exactly known for great food either lol
Weird ass fcking state. Can we pawn this one off to Mexico?
Alt title: Texas to spend $5 mil on software that is easily defeated by not bringing your cell phone to a riot.
You’re missing the point. This is a gross violation of privacy rights.
It can be a waste of money and an invasion of privacy rights. The two are not mutually exclusive.
That’s not what you said…
Sorry if there was confusion. My main point: leave your narc device at home when doing crimes. Have a good day!
Do you think committing a crime is the only time this matters?
Edit: Imagine being trans, gay, a minority, or just the wrong political party, and the police decide to go after you.
Not too long ago Texas was trying to charge parents of trans youths with child abuse.
No, also probably when the AI pattern matches your behavior to a criminal’s behavior because you live in the same neighborhood.
Again I’m not saying this isn’t bad, I’m saying Texas has no idea what they bought or how to use it. The only practical way to use it is the way the feds do, and if they try the AI shit it will likely fuck them legally speaking at the federal level OR orange Julius wins and the NSA starts just giving this shit to Texas, so this will all be moot.
I think they got grifted out of $5 mil by AI hucksters.
I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking about. This is exactly the kind of thing AI is good at, pattern recognition.
