Word: fbi
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...possible connection with law enforcement came to light when the data brokers were asked as part of the Congressional inquiry to submit letters revealing their client lists. One data broker listed as clients the FBI and unspecified "foreign governments," while another claimed to have done work for the Department of Homeland Security. Neither company will reveal the extent of the data they gave out. Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security deny any wrongdoing...
...House Energy and Commerce Committee's probe into data brokers has been dogged by controversy. Robert Douglas, an information security consultant who runs PrivacyToday.com and was hired to do research for the committee, resigned in April because he felt allegations that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were purchasing phone records were not being investigated thoroughly enough. And a bipartisan committee bill to protect phone records by outlawing pretexting was suddenly withdrawn just before a full House vote in early May. Some Democrats suspect there may be a connection between the pulling of the bill and the recent revelations...
...letter to the House committee, made public earlier this month, Advanced Research, Inc. (ARI), the operator of ADVSearch.com, said the company has "done work for municipalities, banks, mortgage and insurance companies, private companies, foreign governments, law enforcement, even the FBI." Michael Kortan, FBI spokesman, says it is possible the bureau has used companies like Advanced Research, but notes that these companies provide many services other than accessing phone records. "They offer a wide variety of compressing publicly available data that saves a lot of legwork and saves a lot of time," Kortan told TIME. While saying it did not sound...
...Bruce Martin, vice president of Advanced Research, said he did not think the FBI had purchased services since 1999, when he joined the company, but he understood that information was sold to the bureau before then. ?We do not sell telecommunications information any more,? he said. Martin's firm, however, is being sued by the Illinois Attorney General for obtaining and selling phone records without the consumer's consent. With regard to these charges, Martin contends that ARI is simply a middleman: "We have certification from all our researchers that everything they do is legal and they don?t tell...
...Patrick Baird, vice president of PDJ investigations, says that in its six years the company has supplied information for between 200 and 300 law enforcement cases. He said the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were among the company's past clients. But Baird said most of the time these agencies (and most of PDJ's other customers) ask simply for the name and address attached to a specific phone number, not for complete call records. Yet Douglas, the former researcher for the Congressional committee, points out that even that information most likely is obtained through pretexting. The anonymous...