Oregon Senator Demands New Probe Into DHS and ICE for Buying Americans’ Location Data Without Warrants
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has joined a large group of lawmakers calling for a new investigation into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencies into the purchase of sensitive location data obtained without warrants.
Wyden, together with 40 Democrats and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-New York, has called on DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to open an investigation into the activities of DHS and ICE agencies following a previous finding in 2023 that the purchase of “extremely sensitive” information was illegal and the program had to be shut down.
Sources: Sen. Ron Wyden press release dated March 3 2026 / Oversight.gov DHS OIG report OIG 23 61 metadata and recommendations
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In their written request, the applicants point out that ordinarily the government must obtain a warrant from a judge to access personal location data, which can also reveal religion, political views, addictions, medical conditions, and associates with whom time is spent.
ICE Stonewalled Congressional oversight of its Location Data Purchases
According to a press release from Sen. Wyden’s office, ICE stonewalled congressional oversight of its location data purchases.
After requesting a briefing from ICE, Wyden says a meeting was scheduled for February 10, 2026. However, ICE canceled a day before, without explanation or an offer to reschedule.
According to a 404 Media report, ICE issued a no-bid contract to surveillance company Penlink in 2025.
The contract included licenses for its location tracking product, Webloc, which was developed by Cobwebs Technologies, a controversial surveillance company, which combined with Penlink in 2023.
Meta banned Cobwebs in 2021 after detecting that the company targeted activists, opposition politicians, and government officials in Mexico and Hong Kong.
Among the questions asked by signatories of the Inspector General are whether he has investigated:
- DHS and ICE agencies are purchasing illegally obtained location data
- How the two agencies are using the location data and whether it has been used to investigate Americans engaged in constitutionally protected activities, including ICE protests and ICE enforcement operations
- Why has DHS not adopted a policy for the use of commercial location data, as was recommended by the Inspector General in 2023?
These are the specific guardrails the DHS watchdog pointed to:
| Safeguard | What it requires | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy Impact Assessment / PIA | Approval before procuring or operational use | Forces documented limits and mitigation steps |
| Access controls | No shared logins / clear user accountability | Reduces internal misuse and cover for abuse |
| Audit logs review | Supervisors request and review usage logs | Detects suspicious searches and patterns |
| DHS wide policy | Uniform rules for commercial telemetry data use | Closes gaps across components and contracts |
Federal Agencies Have Spent Millions of Dollars Purchasing Location Data
Federal agencies have spent millions of dollars purchasing access to commercial location data tools from ad-tech identifiers.
These tools allowed investigators to map the movement of private phones on a massive scale, all without obtaining a court-issued warrant.
The purchase of location data by government agencies is not new. In 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that ICE and other federal agencies bought location data from Venntel.
At that time, Sen. Wyden discovered that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was also a Venntel customer.