In one instance, a CBP official also inappropriately used the technology to track the location of coworkers with no investigative purpose.

For years, US government agencies have been buying access to location data through commercial vendors, which critics say skirts the Fourth Amendment requirement of a warrant. During that time, the agencies have typically refused to publicly explain the legal basis for their purchase and use of the data.

Three of the main customers of commercial location data broke the law and needed to have a supervisory review to ensure proper use of the technology. We guess the bloke investigating a colleague was trying to find out if she was married or had a boyfriend.

The report recommends that ICE only uses such data once it obtains the necessary approvals, a request that ICE has refused.

The report with the catchy title CBP, ICE, and Secret Service Did Not Adhere to Privacy Policies or Develop Sufficient Policies Before Procuring and Using Commercial Telemetry Data is dated 28 September 2023 and was penned by Joseph V. Cuffari, the Inspector General for DHS.

The report was initially marked as "law enforcement sensitive," but the Inspector General has made it public.