Meet The Secretive Surveillance Wizards Helping The FBI And ICE Wiretap Facebook And Google Users

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2022/02/23/meet-the-secretive-surveillance-wizards-helping-the-fbi-and-ice-wiretap-facebook-and-google-users/?sh=1830fbee3f0f

A small Nebraska company is helping law enforcement around the world spy on users of Google, Facebook and other tech giants. A secretly recorded presentation to police reveals how deeply embedded in the U.S. surveillance machine PenLink has become.

PenLink might be the most pervasive wiretapper you’ve never heard of.

The Lincoln, Nebraska-based company is often the first choice of law enforcement looking to keep tabs on the communications of criminal suspects. It’s probably best known, if it’s known at all, for its work helping convict Scott Peterson, who murdered his wife Laci and their unborn son in a case that fomented a tabloid frenzy in the early 2000s. Nowadays the company has been helping cops keep tabs on suspected wrongdoing by users of Google, Facebook and WhatsApp – whatever web tool that law enforcement requests.

With $20 million revenue every year from U.S. government customers such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and almost every other law enforcement agency in the federal directory, PenLink enjoys a steady stream of income. That doesn’t include its sales to local and state police, where it also does significant business but for which there are no available revenue figures. Forbes viewed contracts across the U.S., including towns and cities in California, Florida, Illinois, Hawaii, North Carolina and Nevada.

“PenLink is proud to support law enforcement across the U.S. and internationally in their effort to fight wrongdoing,” the company said. “We do not publicly discuss how our solution is being utilized by our customers.”

Sometimes it takes a spy to get transparency from a surveillance company. Jack Poulson, founder of technology watchdog Tech Inquiry, went incognito at the National Sheriffs’ Association’s winter conference in Washington. He recorded a longtime PenLink employee showing off what the company could do for law enforcement and discussing the scale of its operations. Not only does the recording lift the lid on how deeply involved PenLink is in wiretapping operations across the U.S., it also reveals in granular detail just how tech providers such as Apple, Facebook and Google provide information to police when they’re confronted with a valid warrant or subpoena.

 

[SpiderWeb]

Looks like they offer their service to everybody involved in lawful law enforcement, not just the big three letter agencies:

Resources | Penlink - The Leading Authority In Digital Intelligence

Access resources and news from the leading authority in digital intelligence.

www.penlink.com

This really brings it back to the main point: There are companies out there that you and me can use that are even more capable of collecting data than the government. That know more about you than even the government does.