Social Media Surveillance: LAPD Employs Cobwebs to Monitor Your Online Activity
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has engaged in a multimillion-dollar agreement with the Israeli firm Cobwebs Technologies to acquire a comprehensive software suite designed for the extensive collection and analysis of citizens’ geolocation data.
The system provided by Cobwebs comprises two primary platforms. The first, named Tangle, is characterized as a web analytics platform that facilitates internet searches, including on social networks and even the darknet. Tangle can be equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities for image, face, and symbol recognition.
The second platform, weBloc, is described as a real-time location tracking system, enabling the precise monitoring of individuals’ movements throughout the city. Notably, it is the weBloc platform that has raised concerns regarding potential infringements on civil rights and the privacy of Los Angeles residents.
Details of the transaction were revealed following requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the documents, the contract was signed a year ago, in October 2022, and is set for a one-year duration. During this period, the LAPD planned to test webLoc and prepare a report on its effectiveness.
In its operation, the weBloc platform gathers and processes vast arrays of geolocation data, allowing for the analysis of specific geographic zones for suspicious activities, about which it promptly informs the police.
The exact data sources for webLoc are not definitively known, but they likely include what are termed mobile data brokers. These are companies that collect information about smartphone users from their online activities and sell these details to other organizations.
Civil activists have expressed concerns that the police’s use of such data effectively circumvents constitutional norms requiring a warrant for citizen surveillance.
Cobwebs Technologies, founded in 2015 by three veterans of the Israeli army, has primarily engaged in contracts with intelligence services, as well as with the IRS and the Texas police in the United States. The annual license fee for their surveillance system is estimated at around $200,000.
Neither representatives from the LAPD nor Cobwebs Technologies have yet commented on the deal’s conclusion and the capabilities of the webLoc technology.
