Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
The US Secret Service (USSS) signed a contract to access Locate X, a service that lets law enforcement track phone users’ locations. Motherboard published apparent confirmation of the deal this morning, following a Protocol report in March. The contract indicates that the USSS paid Virginia company Babel Street around $36,000 to add Locate X to a $2 million social media monitoring package.
Protocol’s report describes Locate X as a powerful tracking tool that aggregates data from popular phone apps, then lets buyers track the location history of devices that were active at a specific time and place. It reported that the Secret Service, US Customs and Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have all used the product. The…