‘Raises Serious Constitutional Issues’ – Sen. Johnson Opens Probe Into CDC Tracking Americans Through Phone Location Data
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is investigating the CDC for tracking million of American through phone location data.
“Just because data exists, doesn’t mean that the government should be using it to track Americans, I would think that that really raises some very serious constitutional issues,” Senator Ron Johnson told John Solomon on “Just the News – Not Noise.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used phone location data to track millions Americans in 2021.
The CDC monitored curfew zones, churches, schools, neighbor-to-neighbor visits and trips to pharmacies through SafeGraph, a controversial data broker.
The CDC purchased the phone data and used Covid-19 as an excuse to buy the data more quickly and in larger quantities according to documents exclusively obtained by Motherboard through a FOIA request.
The CDC used the data to determine whether Americans were complying with Covid lockdown orders.
Ron Johnson is now investigating the CDC for using phone location data to monitor churches, schools and more.
Just The News reported:
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is investigating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for tracking millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC paid one company $420,000 to access location data for at least 20 million cell phones a day, a Vice Motherboard investigation revealed last week. While the CDC claimed it needed access to the data to fight COVID, documents show the data was used “to support non-COVID-19 programmatic areas and public health priorities.”
Johnson criticized the CDC’s phone tracking efforts Monday on “Just the News – Not Noise.”
In a letter to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Thursday, Johnson wrote, “It remains unclear why the CDC tracked millions of Americans during the pandemic and whether it continues to do so. In response to COVID-19, the CDC should have been prioritizing the development of treatments, effective testing, and vaccine safety rather than tracking Americans’ daily lives.”
He demanded answers from the CDC on the purchase and use of location data, including whether the agency used other mechanisms to monitor Americans throughout the pandemic.
