Privacy oversight board finds FBI does not buy real-time location data

An independent executive branch watchdog agency on Thursday issued a report finding that the FBI does not purchase continuous or “real-time” location data from any phone, internet or electronic service providers for use in counterterrorism investigations.

The report, which is based on an investigation begun by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) in 2017, provides an overview of what open-source information the FBI consults in such investigations. 

It is unclear why the PCLOB undertook the probe, but it was launched at a time when awareness of how technological advances allow for a granular level of data tracking was taking hold. 

Notably, it does not say the FBI does not buy location data at all. The FBI does use the location data broker Babel Street, which sells information on individuals’ whereabouts historically, the report says.

Open-source information is freely accessible to the public or is sold by commercial sources like data brokers. The report says that the FBI often relies on open-source information in the early stages of counterterrorism probes.

While the report acknowledges that the collection and use of open-source information poses “some risk to privacy and civil liberties,” particularly when combined with other data, it says that it is “among the least intrusive means of investigation for counterterrorism and other potential crimes or threats.”