WYCDN … to Protect Yourself from Webloc, ICE’s New Tracking Tool – What You Can Do Now
Today, we’re going to be talking about ICE’s frightening new surveillance tool that allows them to identify the locations of individual devices and track those devices across time and location, thereby allowing ICE to monitor both individuals and entire neighborhoods.
According to documents obtained by 404 Media, ICE has partnered with the contractor Penlink and now have access to two tools called Webloc and Tangles. We’re going to focus on Webloc in this episode, a program that uses location data originally collected through smartphones apps and advertisements. This kind of tracking typically occurs in two ways:
The first is by directly collecting and selling your data. Many or maybe even most apps on your phone ask to track your location. For example, if you’re using a marketplace app to shop, you likely gave the app permission to see your location so that it could show you listing in your area. I certainly have. Many apps that don’t need your location to function still ask you to share it, from gaming apps to social media. Companies then often share or sell that data to third parties without telling you.
The second way is more complicated and deceitful, through something called real time bidding. When you load an app or a webpage that uses advertisements to make money, a hidden bidding war takes place behind the scenes. Before the ad is shown, an automated auction fires off in milliseconds, and the highest bidder gets the ad slot. But the dangerous part is that advertisers receive data about you, often including age, device identifiers, inferred interests, and location before the ad is even shown. Some companies bid, not to actually win, but to collect your data and either use it or sell it. Not every ad exchange shares the same amount of data, but many of the largest ones do.
If you want to learn more about how the tool works and what Weblock users can do with it, I highly recommend 404 media’s podcast episode on this titled The ICE Tool That Tracks Entire Neighborhoods. That episode and other informational resources are linked on our website.
Now let’s discuss how you can protect yourself from these dangerous privacy violations.
- Turn off location services
Turn off location services for apps that don’t need your location, and for those that do need your location, change settings to “Only While Using” or “Ask Next Time”.
On iOS, go to Settings→ Privacy → Location Services, and you can change permissions for each app.
On Android, go to Settings → Location → App permission manager → and there you can toggle off for apps. - Turn off ad personalization
Your location can still be inferred from your device’s advertising identifier. So on iPhone, you’ll want to disallow apps to request to track you or on Android turn off ad‑ID.
On iOS: Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track”. You can also turn off Apple advertising by Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising → turn off “Personalized Ads”
On Android: Settings → Google → Ads → “Opt out of Ads Personalization”. - Use a VPN and Firewall
Even after you turn off location services and stop apps from using your advertising ID, ad‑tech companies can still piece together a profile from generic information that all apps can access without permission, things like your phone model, OS version, and language settings. So we’ll add a couple more layers of protection.
A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides your real IP address. That means someone watching public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop, or even your internet service provider, can’t easily see what sites you visit or where you’re connecting from.
What a VPN does not do is stop apps themselves from collecting data inside the app. That’s why it works best when combined with a firewall.
A firewall looks at every outgoing connection your phone tries to make and decides whether to allow it. You can use a firewall app, or a VPN that includes per-app blocking, to stop apps from contacting known ad-tech and tracking domains. You can also block internet access entirely for apps that don’t need to be online.
When you combine a VPN with a firewall, you’re reducing tracking in two ways: the data that does leave your phone is encrypted, and a lot of tracking traffic is blocked from leaving at all. It’s not perfect, but it dramatically reduces how much information is collected and shared without your consent.
No single tool can stop all tracking, but layering protections makes mass surveillance far more difficult and far less reliable.
Last precaution: If you’re going to a protest and don’t want to be tracked, you can be extra careful by purchasing a Faraday bag. Place your phone inside of a properly working bag and no signal can get in or out.
You might be thinking “OK Angelica, this is a lot of work and what ICE is doing doesn’t really sound ethical, but I have nothing to hide, so how would this hurt me or anyone else?”
That is exactly what ICE wants you to think, but the dangers of this constitutional workaround affects everyone. Don Bell, policy counsel at an advocacy group called the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight, told the independent: “This is probably unconstitutional. Usually, if law enforcement wants to take your phone, and is interested in getting your location data, they would need a warrant, but because the law has not kept up with technology, there is this loophole that effectively has allowed law enforcement to purchase location data, which is highly sensitive, without getting a warrant first.”
With no oversight, ICE can store your data indefinitely, and can build a case against you retroactively. This isn’t just fear mongering, the government has done this in the past. Look up Carpenter v. United States and United States v. Moalin.
I can’t stress this enough. Help protect yourself and your family. Here’s a quick checklist:
- Turn off location services
- Turn off ad personalization.
- Use a VPN with Firewall
Further Reading
- https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-trump-dhs-surveillance-penlink-b2838451.html
- https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods
- https://www.404media.co/candy-crush-tinder-myfitnesspal-see-the-thousands-of-apps-hijacked-to-spy-on-your-location
- https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ice-webloc-warrantless-phone-tracking/
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