????????果然是滿嘴道德仁義，一肚子見不得人的“貓膩”。

????????近日，美國(guó)頻頻借國(guó)家安全、信息泄露之名，行打壓中國(guó)科技企業(yè)之實(shí)。誰想這賊喊捉賊的舊把戲，卻因?yàn)橐患冶尘胺浅Ｌ厥獾拿绹?guó)小公司，徹底暴露了。

????????當(dāng)?shù)貢r(shí)間8月7日，《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》報(bào)道稱，一家與美國(guó)國(guó)防和情報(bào)界有聯(lián)系的美國(guó)小公司，已經(jīng)將其軟件植入到超過500款移動(dòng)應(yīng)用程序中，使其能夠追蹤全球數(shù)億用戶的位置數(shù)據(jù)。

????????報(bào)道稱，私營(yíng)公司買賣位置數(shù)據(jù)的情況雖不在少數(shù)，但與美國(guó)國(guó)安機(jī)構(gòu)密切相關(guān)的企業(yè)直接收集此類數(shù)據(jù)，這是不尋常的。

• Many private-sector companies in the advertising and marketing world buy and sell geolocation data, sometimes reselling it to government agencies or contractors. But the direct collection of such data by a business closely linked to US national security agencies is unusual.

????????這家位于弗吉尼亞州的美國(guó)小公司名叫Anomaly Six，由兩名有情報(bào)背景的美國(guó)退伍軍人創(chuàng)辦。

????????名不見經(jīng)傳的小公司為何能掀起風(fēng)浪，其到底是做什么生意的，不如一起來看看↓↓

• 該公司營(yíng)銷材料中介紹稱，他們能夠從500多個(gè)應(yīng)用程序中提取位置數(shù)據(jù)，且其中一部分?jǐn)?shù)據(jù)是通過其直接植入到應(yīng)用里的軟件開發(fā)工具包獲取的。

• Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two US?military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data?from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps.?

• 如果消費(fèi)者允許包含該軟件的應(yīng)用程序訪問手機(jī)的GPS坐標(biāo)，該公司就可以通過SDK獲得手機(jī)的位置信息。

• An SDK allows the company to obtain the phone's location if consumers have allowed the app containing the software to access the phone's GPS coordinates.

????????公司如何盈利呢？Anomaly Six這樣的SDK制造商，出售消費(fèi)者數(shù)據(jù)，以此牟取暴利。然后分一大筆給應(yīng)用程序發(fā)行商。

????????美國(guó)用戶和消費(fèi)者隱私數(shù)據(jù)被賣，他們知道么？顯然答案是否定的。美國(guó)大多數(shù)隱私條款都不會(huì)披露應(yīng)用程序中是否嵌套了SDK工具包這樣的信息。

????????據(jù)《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》報(bào)道，Anomaly Six公司與哪些應(yīng)用程序合作尚不清楚，該公司以保密協(xié)議為由拒絕置評(píng)。在商業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)銷售領(lǐng)域，數(shù)據(jù)公司和應(yīng)用程序開發(fā)商之間的合作關(guān)系通常是嚴(yán)格保密的商業(yè)秘密。

• The partnerships between data brokers and app makers are typically closely held trade secrets within the world of commercial-data sales.

????????明目張膽買賣數(shù)據(jù)位置，天天把用戶隱私、國(guó)家安全掛在嘴邊的美國(guó)政府不管么？

????????據(jù)《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》報(bào)道，美國(guó)這方面的規(guī)定少之又少，就像是“拓荒前之美國(guó)西部”。

• According to interviews with numerous people in the industry, there is little regulation in the US about the buying and selling of location data, leading to what one industry veteran called "the Wild West".

????????不僅不管，還涉事其中。

????????《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》稱，在許多美國(guó)政府部門看來，聯(lián)邦機(jī)構(gòu)從廣告中獲取移動(dòng)數(shù)據(jù)是合法的，已有多個(gè)聯(lián)邦執(zhí)法機(jī)構(gòu)正在將這類數(shù)據(jù)用于刑事執(zhí)法，而許多美國(guó)軍事和情報(bào)機(jī)構(gòu)也在獲取這類數(shù)據(jù)。

Anomaly Six與美國(guó)政府的關(guān)系

如何被暴露的

????????Anomaly Six原本高度隱秘，為何能暴露呢？原因居然像極了狗血電視劇里的橋段。

????????Anomaly Six其實(shí)并不是第一家干數(shù)據(jù)買賣的公司，也不是最先跟美國(guó)軍方合作的公司。該公司的兩位創(chuàng)始人2018年從一家名為Babel Street的公司離職，開始搶“老東家”的生意。終于，被“老東家”告上了法庭。

• The two founders of Anomaly Six formerly worked for Babel Street and left in 2018, according to the lawsuit.

????????《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》在文章中興奮地寫道：“Babel Street兩年前對(duì)Anomaly Six及其創(chuàng)始人提起的訴訟為我們提供了一個(gè)窗口，讓我們得以一窺這個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈、高度隱秘的市場(chǎng)，即把用戶數(shù)據(jù)作為產(chǎn)品提供給美國(guó)政府?！?/p>

• A lawsuit filed by Babel Street two years ago against Anomaly Six and its founders offers a window into the competitive and largely secretive market of providing consumer location products to the US?government.

????????據(jù)悉，Anomaly Six的創(chuàng)始人，美國(guó)前陸軍反間諜官員布蘭登·赫夫（Brandan Huff）曾負(fù)責(zé)處理Babel Street與國(guó)防部的關(guān)系，還為許多其他國(guó)防承包商工作過。法庭記錄顯示，另一位創(chuàng)始人名叫杰弗里·海因茨(Jeffrey Heinz)也曾在美國(guó)陸軍服役，負(fù)責(zé)處理Babel Street與司法部、美國(guó)網(wǎng)絡(luò)司令部、民間聯(lián)邦機(jī)構(gòu)和情報(bào)機(jī)構(gòu)的關(guān)系。

• Brandan Huff, a former Army counterintelligence officer, had managed Babel Street's relationship with the Defense Department and had also worked for numerous other defense contractors. The other, Jeffrey Heinz, was also previously in the U.S. Army and had managed Babel Street's relationships with the Justice Department, US?Cyber Command, civilian federal agencies and the intelligence community, court records show.

????????Babel Street有一款名為“Locate X”的產(chǎn)品，主要功能包括從消費(fèi)者應(yīng)用程序中提取數(shù)百萬用戶的位置記錄。

????????根據(jù)Babel Street的訴訟，Anomaly Six的這兩位創(chuàng)始人辭職后，開始著手開發(fā)一款與該公司競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的產(chǎn)品。Anomaly Six公司拒絕對(duì)這起訴訟發(fā)表評(píng)論。這起訴訟已于去年庭外和解。

????????要不是魚死網(wǎng)破、訴諸公堂，外界幾乎很難知道這些消息。

????????根據(jù)《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》看到的合同和用戶協(xié)議，Babel Street沒有公開宣傳“Locate X”，甚至約束客戶和使用者對(duì)其進(jìn)行保密。

• Babel Street doesn't publicly advertise Locate X and binds clients and users to secrecy about even its existence, according to contracts and user agreements reviewed by the Journal.

????????根據(jù)法庭記錄，按照美國(guó)政府官員意見開發(fā)的“Locate X”被美國(guó)軍事情報(bào)部門廣泛使用，他們致力于收集“開源”情報(bào)，即從公開來源獲取的信息。美國(guó)聯(lián)邦合同數(shù)據(jù)顯示，Babel Street還與美國(guó)國(guó)土安全部、美國(guó)司法部和許多其他民間機(jī)構(gòu)簽訂了合同。

• Developed with input from US?government officials?Locate X is widely used by military intelligence units who work on gathering "open source"?intelligence, or information taken from publicly available sources.

• Babel Street also has contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and?many other civilian agencies,?federal?contracting?data shows.?

????????Anomaly Six和Babel Street這兩家公司都跟美國(guó)政府有千絲萬縷的聯(lián)系。

????????根據(jù)法庭記錄和采訪顯示，Anomaly Six 創(chuàng)始人職業(yè)生涯的大部分時(shí)間都與美國(guó)國(guó)家安全機(jī)構(gòu)密切合作。

• Anomaly Six was founded by defense-contracting veterans who worked closely with government agencies for most of their careers and built a company to cater in part to national-security agencies, according to court records and interviews.

????????《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》記者在一份美國(guó)軍方文件中，看到了官員對(duì)該公司強(qiáng)大數(shù)據(jù)收集能力的描述：

• “Anomaly Six是一家退役軍人擁有的小型企業(yè)，對(duì)來自移動(dòng)設(shè)備的位置數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行處理和可視化，用于分析和洞察，”“我們利用來自大量第一手資源的詳細(xì)位置數(shù)據(jù)，為團(tuán)隊(duì)、行為和模式提供洞察。

• "Anomaly Six is a veteran-owned small business that processes and visualizes location data sourced from mobile devices for analytics and insights," the company said in response to questions for this article. "We leverage detailed location data from numerous first-party sources to provide insights into groups, behaviors, and patterns."

美國(guó)政府拿著手機(jī)用戶數(shù)據(jù)能做什么？

????????雖然Babel Street和Anomaly Six的一波內(nèi)斗，只暴露出美國(guó)信息監(jiān)控的冰山一角，但我們可以大概看到美國(guó)背后這些公司到底在干什么。

????????據(jù)悉，Babel Street和Anomaly Six的產(chǎn)品綜合各種情報(bào)收集方式，將以相對(duì)傳統(tǒng)的方式收集到的情報(bào)與社交媒體數(shù)據(jù)、衛(wèi)星圖像和私營(yíng)部門的消費(fèi)者數(shù)據(jù)結(jié)合起來。

????????各類信息整合后，匯集成所謂的“生活模式”分析，這樣就可以對(duì)潛在情報(bào)目標(biāo)的習(xí)慣和行為有更充分的了解，進(jìn)而為預(yù)測(cè)他們未來的行為提供可能性。

• 從應(yīng)用程序中提取的數(shù)據(jù)中，每部手機(jī)通常都有一個(gè)字母數(shù)字標(biāo)識(shí)符，該標(biāo)識(shí)符與手機(jī)所有者的姓名沒有關(guān)聯(lián)。但是隨著手機(jī)使用時(shí)間推移，可以讓分析人員推斷出它的所有權(quán)——例如，手機(jī)在晚上的位置和晚上可能是手機(jī)擁有者居住的地方。

• In the data drawn from apps, each cellphone is typically represented by an alphanumeric identifier that isn't linked to the name of the cellphone's owner. But the movement patterns of a phone over time can allow analysts to deduce its ownership—for example, where the phone is located during the evenings and overnight is likely where the phone-owner lives.

????????《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》上個(gè)月就報(bào)道過，作為美國(guó)陸軍項(xiàng)目的一部分，學(xué)術(shù)研究人員使用Babel Street的軟件能夠監(jiān)控到俄羅斯軍事設(shè)施中設(shè)備的移動(dòng)情況。

• A group of academic researchers using Babel Street's software were able to?monitor the movement of devices?at Russian military facilities as part of a project for the US?Army, the Journal also reported last month.

????????手機(jī)用戶根本不知道，當(dāng)他們安裝天氣應(yīng)用程序、游戲或任何其他看似無害的應(yīng)用程序時(shí)，他們的私人位置數(shù)據(jù)將被收集、出售和分析。

????????這些年來，要說“網(wǎng)絡(luò)竊密”，美國(guó)敢說第二，沒人敢說第一。

????????“方程式”和“索倫之眼”等高威脅組織，后臺(tái)是美國(guó)；曾在世界掀起軒然大波的“棱鏡門”事件，始作俑者是美國(guó)；動(dòng)輒對(duì)他國(guó)發(fā)動(dòng)“網(wǎng)絡(luò)戰(zhàn)”的，還是美國(guó)……如今500多款應(yīng)用中植入跟蹤軟件，美國(guó)軍方依舊脫不了關(guān)系。

????????正如《中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)》駐歐盟分社社長(zhǎng)陳衛(wèi)華在一條熱評(píng)推文中寫道的：美國(guó)APP監(jiān)控著全世界。

編輯：王瑜

來源：中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)（ID：chinadailywx）

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