{"id":115518,"date":"2019-09-09T16:06:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=115518"},"modified":"2019-09-09T16:06:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T03:55:49","slug":"ice-google-apple-user-data-atn-scope-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/ice-google-apple-user-data-atn-scope-app\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Asks Google, Apple to Hand Over User Data for ATN Scope App"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"ICE
ATN offers thermal, night vision, and infrared scopes, some of which are controlled by an app. (Photo: ATN Facebook)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in history, the United States government is asking Google and Apple to hand over personal information from users of a single app. And \u2013 surprise! \u2013 it\u2019s gun-related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Justice is asking the tech giants to surrender information from at least 10,000 users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp (ATN), according to a report from Forbes<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The would-be data seizure comes as part of an investigation\nby Immigrations and Customs Enforcement into illegal exports of ATN\u2019s scope. The\ncompany isn\u2019t under investigation, according to a court order filed by the\nDepartment of Justice (DOJ), but law enforcement officials have intercepted\nillegal shipments of the scope to Canada, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By obtaining telephone numbers, IP addresses, and use times of Obsidian 4 users, officials hope to track the networks that have been illegally exporting and receiving the scopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GunsAmerica reached out to ATN, who told us via email they were unaware of these allegations until Forbes published its article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“ATN has not been contacted by the Department of Justice, Apple, or Google,” they said. “ATN will protect its customers and their identifying data to the absolute extent possible under U.S. law. And, it will not provide any information regarding the identity of our customers to any third party unless specifically required by law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEE ALSO: Digital Night Vision Scope for $599? Hog Hunting with the ATN X-Sight II HD<\/a> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Privacy rights experts told Forbes that federal agencies shouldn\u2019t be able to scoop up data on individuals who haven\u2019t been suspected of a crime. Worse still, the information they acquire could be used to open investigations on individuals totally unrelated to the original data request. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe danger is the government will go on this fishing\nexpedition, and they\u2019ll see information unrelated to what they weren\u2019t looking\nfor and go after someone for something else,\u201d Tor Ekeland, a privacy-focused\nlawyer, told Forbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ekeland pointed to the U.S. government\u2019s long history of\nwidespread data collection and warned that the feds could apply this demand to\nother types of app, such as dating or health apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a more profound issue here with the government able\nto vacuum up a vast amount of data on people they have no reason to suspect\nhave committed any crime. They don\u2019t have any probable cause to investigate,\nbut they\u2019re getting access to data on them,\u201d Ekeland added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEE ALSO: The FBI is Adding New Database for Wider Background Checks on Gun Purchasers<\/a> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The government hasn\u2019t named any particular group or individual under investigation. Online reports have claimed<\/a> that the Taliban has used ATN\u2019s cost-effective night vision optics, but it remains unclear exactly who the feds are hoping to track. If the court grants the order, Google and Apple will be asked to hand over the user information or fight the request in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Williams, a former NSA analyst and now a cybersecurity\nconsultant at Rendition Infosec, told Forbes the companies should fight to protect\ntheir users\u2019 information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoogle and Apple should definitely fight these requests as\nthey represent a very slippery slope.\u201d He said that if the request was granted\nit may also have a \u201cserious chilling effect on how people use the Google and\nAndroid app stores.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea that Google could be compelled to turn over, in secret, all of my identifiers and session data in its possession because I downloaded an application for research is such a broad overreach it’s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a>***<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“ATN has not been contacted by the Department of Justice, Apple, or Google,” they said. “ATN will protect its customers and their identifying data to the absolute extent possible under U.S. law. And, it will not provide any information regarding the identity of our customers to any third party unless specifically required by law.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":115529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,25,593,261,240],"tags":[2028,132,607],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-115518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-current-events","9":"category-jordan-michaels","10":"category-police-state","11":"category-this-week","12":"tag-atn","13":"tag-buzz","14":"tag-news"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/atn-150x90.gif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185713,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115518\/revisions\/185713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115518"},{"taxonomy":"featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured?post=115518"},{"taxonomy":"hunt365","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hunt365?post=115518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}