[soft on crime? Who are They bullshitting?] ACLU Files FOIA Request on the DC Government’s Use of Web-Based Surveillance Software that Can Track People's Speech and Movements

The ACLU of the District of Columbia today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information to find out how the Washington DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) has used surveillance software that can track and monitor people’s connections with others and that can monitor what people say, who they know, where they go, and what they do.

The civil rights and liberties organization requested records related to the District’s purchase and use of software offered by Cobwebs Technologies, a cyber intelligence firm founded in 2015 and in 2023 merged into the software company PenLink, Ltd. Cobwebs has offered three types of software (Tangles, Webloc, and Lynx) that can be used to track and monitor people based on cell phone, web, and social media activity , including identifying a person’s location.

Between 2020 and 2024, the HSEMA spent nearly $350,000.00 to license the Tangles software. Little is known about how Tangles and potentially other technologies offered by Cobwebs have been used in D.C. A leaked 2020 Tangles training manual shows local examples of types of targets that could be monitored, including a Twitter username of a Black-led activist group, an anonymous independent journalist who was shot in the leg by DC police in 2020, and #DefundDCPolice.

The ACLU-D.C. filed today’s FOIA request “to understand and analyze how the District is using any Cobwebs products to determine its impact on the privacy interests and civil and constitutional rights of D.C. residents.” The ACLU-D.C. requested “any and all documents” related to Cobwebs products, including HSEMA’s purchase or licensing of Cobwebs products; instructions and training provided to HSEMA staff using those products; the use or capabilities of artificial intelligence in connection with any Cobwebs product; and more. [more]