A coalition of privacy and civil rights organizations filed a consumer complaint Wednesday, calling on Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown to investigate data brokers accused of violating state privacy laws by selling residents' personal and geolocation data to law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The complaint names Penlink, Thomson Reuters, Motorola, Insight LPR, LexisNexis, Flock Safety, and ThunderCat Technology. According to the filing, these firms collect and sell information that ICE uses to track and deport immigrants and monitor protesters.
Penlink sells cellphone location data through its Webloc program. The other companies primarily sell car location data captured through automatic license plate readers. Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis provide ICE with tools that integrate public records and proprietary data sources. ThunderCat Technology holds a contract with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, to supply individual taxpayer identification number data.
Maryland has among the country's strictest data privacy laws. Yet privacy advocates contend that commercial data brokers circumvent these protections by selling to federal immigration authorities.
Penlink and Thomson Reuters denied the allegations, telling NPR they comply with Maryland's data privacy requirements.
Georgetown University Law Center's Technology Law Clinic authored the complaint on behalf of We Are CASA, an immigrant rights organization, and 11 other groups including the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The complaint asks Brown to "use the full force" of Maryland's privacy statutes and demands "immediate action to rein in agencies' use of commercially purchased data that enables mass surveillance of Americans without judicial, legislative, or public oversight."
George Escobar, executive director of We Are CASA, said the data sales have created chilling effects. Parents hesitate to update addresses with state agencies, and individuals avoid institutions that collect personal data even when eligible for benefits. "Ensuring a more equitable Maryland for all starts with an investigation of these data companies and strict enforcement," Escobar said.
