A declassified US intelligence report emphasizes the dual nature of online personal data: a powerful tool for intelligence gathering and privacy risk to ordinary individuals.
According to the recently released report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in order to safeguard civil liberties, it is necessary for US intelligence agencies to document the data they acquire and establish guidelines for protecting that data.
US Intelligence Approach to Commercially Available Information
This report provides a more comprehensive account of how the US intelligence community approaches the procurement of commercially available information, which includes data like geolocation and phone records that can be purchased from third-party sources.
The accessibility of such data has exponentially increased over the past decade due to the widespread use of devices like smartwatches and wireless earpieces.
The ODNI report asserts that the prevalence of such data pertaining to large groups of people has become an increasingly significant component of the information landscape in which US spy agencies operate.
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Prohibition on Personal Devices
Although the report was finalized in January 2022, it has only recently been declassified. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon had requested this report from the ODNI.
In response to the report, Senator Wyden stated on Monday that it is imperative for Congress to pass legislation to establish safeguards around government acquisitions, regulate private companies involved in the collection and sale of such data, and prevent the compromise of Americans’ personal information by adversaries.
The availability of commercially accessible data presents a two-fold challenge for US government agencies.
On one hand, it offers new avenues for intelligence gathering on foreign adversaries, while on the other hand, it exposes vulnerabilities for US personnel. In 2018, the Pentagon implemented a prohibition on deployed personnel using fitness trackers, smartphones, and potentially even dating apps that employ geolocation features.
This decision followed an evaluation of such practices prompted by concerns that the Strava fitness tracking app inadvertently disclosed the locations of security forces around the world.
