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ACLU data privacy allegations overview:
- Who: The American Civil Liberty Union has released information about a database that it says enables the illegal surveillance of private financial transactions.
- Why: The database reportedly includes information about money transfer transactions of more than $500 and is accessible by numerous law enforcement agencies.
- Where: The database includes transactions from people in the United States and Mexico.
The American Civil Liberties Union has released information about a database that reportedly provides U.S. law enforcement agencies with broad access to private financial transactions, Law360 reports.
The ACLU recently released details regarding the Transaction Record Analysis Center, or TRAC, through which Arizona authorities allegedly issued more than 140 subpoenas seeking customer records from money transfer businesses.
The TRAC database was established in 2014 and included at least 145 million records as of 2021, according to the ACLU. It is a non-profit organization that is linked to the Arizona Attorney General’s office.
ACLU says TRAC database is violation of consumer data privacy
Western Union and other money transfer companies have reportedly been sending bulk records to TRAC in response to legal demands from U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.
Numerous law enforcement agencies reportedly have access to the data contained in the TRAC database.
“The government should not be allowed to abuse subpoenas and sweep up millions of records on huge numbers of people without any basis for suspicion,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
“This financial surveillance program is built on repeated violations of the law and must be shut down.”
Senator Wyden seeks investigation into potential data privacy violations
Last year, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon announced that his office discovered that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acquired a “massive trove of ordinary Americans’ financial records” without a warrant.
On Jan. 18, Wyden sent a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General to investigate the relationship that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had with the TRAC database.
He says he has “learned that the scope of this surveillance program and federal agencies’ role is far greater than initially revealed” from Homeland Security Investigations.
Wyden says that DHS officials have examined more than 6 million records in the TRAC database that documented transfers in excess of $500. He notes that these records were requested without alerting the DHS Office of Privacy and therefore no Privacy Impact Assessment was conducted.
In his letter, Wyden expresses concern that immigrants, minorities, and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by this TRAC database because they are more likely to use money transfer services.
Data privacy is an issue of growing concern throughout the United States. Industry experts have cautioned that cities that engage in extensive data collection must safeguard this data from cybercriminals.
What do you think about the ACLU’s data privacy concerns regarding the TRAC database? Tell us about it in the comments!
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