U.S. law enforcement agencies signed millions of dollars worth of contracts with Virginia company Babel Street after it rolled out powerful tool 'Locate X' that uses data from popular mobile apps to track the movement of people's cell phones, according to federal contracting records and six people familiar with the software.
Isn't it odd, that as we speed our way through these end times we are living in, that so many of these companies that make
Mark Of The Beast style tracking products are referencing the bible? Case in point is Babel Street, as in the Tower of Babel, whose new product 'Locate X', will help you find anyone, anywhere and at any time just by following the movement of what they do on the apps on their mobile device?
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." Revelation 13:16-18 (KJB)
We are embracing the onslaught of technology so quickly now, that we are no longer aware of how incredibly small the world has become, and how ridiculously easy it has become to keep tabs on someone. All this forward movement is rapidly bringing this lost world into it's inevitable and unstoppable, face to face meeting with Antichrist who is going to roll out an app that the whole world, with few exceptions, will install in their bodies. If you are that time period as you read this, whatever you do, don't take his Mark, God
will not forgive you if you do.
Through apps, not warrants, ‘Locate X’ allows federal law enforcement to track phones
FROM PROTOCOL: The product, called Locate X and sold by
Babel Street, allows investigators to draw a digital fence around an address or area, pinpoint mobile devices that were within that area, and see where else those devices have traveled, going back months, the sources told Protocol. They said the tool tracks the location of devices anonymously, using data that popular cell phone apps collect to enable features like mapping or targeted ads, or simply to sell it on to data brokers.
The Supreme Court, in the landmark case
Carpenter v. United States, ruled in June 2018 that the government must obtain a search warrant to access cell-tower location data for individual phone accounts. The court "recognized that the government needs a warrant to get someone's location data," Wyden said. "Now the government is using its checkbook to try to get around Carpenter. Americans won't stand for that kind of loophole when it comes to our Fourth Amendment rights."
Babel Street has kept Locate X a secret, not mentioning it in public-facing marketing materials and stipulating in federal contracts that even the existence of the data is "confidential information." Locate X must be "used for internal research purposes only," according to
terms of use distributed to agencies, and law enforcement authorities are forbidden from using the technology as evidence — or mentioning it at all — in legal proceedings.
Federal records show that U.S. Customs and Border Protection purchased Locate X, and the Secret Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also use the location-tracking technology, according to a former Babel Street employee. Numerous other government agencies have active contracts with Reston-based Babel Street, records show, but publicly available contract information does not specify whether other agencies besides CBP bought Locate X or other products and services offered by the company.
None of the federal agencies, including CBP, would confirm whether they used the location-tracking software when contacted by Protocol. Babel Street's other products include an analytics tool it has widely marketed that sifts through streams of social media to "chart sentiment" about topics and brands.
A former government official familiar with Locate X provided an example of how it could be used, referring to the aftermath of a car bombing or kidnapping. Investigators could draw what is known as a geo-fence around the site, identify mobile devices that were in the vicinity in the days before the attack, and see where else those devices had traveled in the days, weeks or months leading up to the attack, or where they traveled afterward.
"If you see a device that a month ago was in Saudi Arabia, then you know maybe Saudis were involved," this person said. "It's a lead generator. You get a data point, and from there you use your other resources to figure out if it's valid."
A former Babel Street employee said the technology was deployed in a
crackdown on credit card skimming, in which thieves install illegal card readers on gas station pumps, capturing customers' card data to use or sell online. The Secret Service was the lead agency in those investigations, which, according to published reports, led to arrests and the seizure of devices.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service declined to comment on its work with Babel Street, saying the agency does not reveal methods used to carry out missions.
While federal records show that CBP purchased Locate X and last year upgraded, paying for "premium" licenses, the records neither describe what Locate X does nor define the difference between a basic and premium license. A CBP spokesperson would not comment in detail about the use of the tool, but said the agency follows the law when deploying "open-source information."
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