The IRS Is Being Investigated for Using Location Data Without a Warrant

[steven36]

The IRS used smartphone location data from a contractor to try and track Americans without a warrant.

 

 

 

The body tasked with oversight of the IRS announced in a letter that it will investigate the agency's use of location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples' phones, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Motherboard.

 

 

 

The move comes after Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren demanded a formal investigation into how the IRS used the location data to track Americans without a warrant.

 

 

 

"We are going to conduct a review of this matter, and we are in the process of contacting the CI [Criminal Investigation] division about this review," the letter, signed by J. Russell George, the Inspector General, and addressed to the Senators, reads. CI has a broad mandate to investigate abusive tax schemes, bankruptcy fraud, identity theft, and many more similar crimes.

 

Wyden’s office provided Motherboard with a copy of the letter on Tuesday.

 

 

n June, officials from the IRS Criminal Investigation unit told Wyden's office that it had purchased location data from a contractor called Venntel, and that the IRS had tried to use it to identify individual criminal suspects. Venntel obtains location data from innocuous looking apps such as games, weather, or e-commerce apps, and then sells access to the data to government clients.

 

A Wyden aide previously told Motherboard that the IRS wanted to find phones, track where they were at night, use that as a proxy as to where the individual lived, and then use other data sources to try and identify the person. A person who used to work for Venntel previously told Motherboard that Venntel customers can use the tool to see which devices are in a particular house, for instance.

 

 

The IRS' attempts were not successful though, as the people the IRS was looking for weren't included in the particular Venntel data set, the aide added.

 

But the IRS still obtained this data without a warrant, and the legal justification for doing so remains unclear. The aide said that the IRS received verbal approval to use the data, but stopped responding to their office's inquiries.

 

The Inspector General specifically said they would investigate the legal argument used.

 

"You requested that TIGTA investigate CI's use of commercial databases in the performance of its duties, and that TIGTA examine the legal analysis IRS lawyers performed to authorize this practice. Your concern is that CI's use of the data described above may not be consistent with the holding of the Supreme Court in the case Carpenter v. United States," the Inspector General's letter continues, referring to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

 

"Upon compilation, to the extent allowable under the law, we will advise you of the results," the letter adds.

 

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

On Tuesday, Motherboard reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had paid for access to Venntel's "global" dataset, meaning the agency could track phones beyond U.S. borders.

 

 

Source

[straycat19]

The IRS didn't actually spy on anyone, Venntel did.  And buying that data and using it isn't a crime under current laws.  If it was then this company wouldn't be in business.  But then we throw politics into the mix and all of a sudden we are wasting resources and time that could be better used searching for real criminals.  This is no different than any law enforcement agency buying tools to break into phones, spy on phone conversations, or any other surveillance activity.

[steven36]

2 hours ago, straycat19 said:

The IRS didn't actually spy on anyone, Venntel did.  And buying that data and using it isn't a crime under current laws.  If it was then this company wouldn't be in business.  But then we throw politics into the mix and all of a sudden we are wasting resources and time that could be better used searching for real criminals.  This is no different than any law enforcement agency buying tools to break into phones, spy on phone conversations, or any other surveillance activity.

The IRS  help bring down Silk Road by tracking  Ross William Ulbricht  because people involved in drugs don't  pay taxes and when they figured  him out they gave the info to the FBI. But there not  law enforcement there tax collectors and  give tax refunds, but  they no debtors prison anymore .but have been known to help them . Other time they help was when  they got Al Capone sent to prison for not paying taxes because the  Feds could not  pin him on all the other crimes he done and the IRS  end his reign. but that was along time ago.  

 

The IRS Today themselves waste money all the time  they have a very limited budget   and  they have all of Big Tech under investigation for years for not paying taxes and they dont have the money to fight  these outfits billions of  dollars but they keep wasting money on  investigating them.   

 

Just like  they wasted money  on this phone data and didn't  get the people they was after . They not very effective  at getting people  to pay taxes  anymore because they don't have the budget anymore.

 

Wasting  the Tax payers  money has been the American  Way every since Bill Clinton went out of office . The U.S Debt is  $26.5 trillion it grow the fastest in history in 2020  by $3 trillion because they gave out coronavirus relief  and millions without jobs so it's going to take way more than  not investigating the IRS to fix our problems. And  it happen under  the people in there now's watch and the person there  trying to put up there now that was one notch down before  was in there before  and  in  them 8 years the debt  just grew, so  they was no help ether. 

 

The problem  is not how much they get paid because  in the old days  the money was less  but worth way more than it is today .So they make way less today than ever before . The problem is  for lots of years  they  been no one that want to fix the budget or at lest they can't come to terms  on it and now shit hit the fan with this virus and now we reap there stupidity if things get much worse crime going go trough the roof. I'm so tired of these idiots  just making things worse year after  year . We will  be lucky  if we can get trough this without having another civil war.   The debt  been growing now  for  7200 days so its just another day in paradise .