A report reveals that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used cell phone location data to spy on millions of Americans in 2021.
The CDC monitored curfew zones, churches, schools, and Americans’ movements using the company SafeGraph, a controversial data broker.
The CDC purchased the cell data using their supposed authority over COVID-19 to track the supposed effectiveness of the government’s coronavirus protocols. The information was obtained by Motherboard through Freedom of Information Act requests.
According to Motherboard:
The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data to, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained by Motherboard. The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more general CDC purposes.
The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.
The CDC also admitted that they intend to use such data to track non-COVID public health areas.
In other words, the CDC wants to get the go ahead to spy on all Americans in perpetuity supposedly for “public health” reasons.
This is an outrageous breach of Americans’ privacy.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
Tags: Commentary coronavirus COVID freedom healthcare privacy security
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