Earlier today, Politico published a story regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s use of location data for use in immigration enforcement as well as human trafficking and narcotics investigations. The source for some of this location data was Venntel, a subsidiary of Gravy Analytics that serves the public sector in areas including national security.

Unfortunately, Politico’s reporting contains material inaccuracies about Venntel’s data and business practices that must be corrected by Politico. These inaccuracies are as follows:

1. The article states that “Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed another contract in November 2021 that lasts until June 2023.” This is objectively false. Venntel does not have any active contracts with DHS. Public records show that DHS closed its purchase orders with Venntel in November 2021, December 2021, and January 2022. These contract actions were not renewals, but rather administrative events following the conclusion of Venntel’s contract with DHS in September 2021.

2. The article also claims that DHS’ acting privacy officer ordered the agency to “stop all projects involving Venntel data” in June 2019. While we cannot speak to internal DHS operations, we strongly suspect this statement is untrue. The Department of Homeland Security’s privacy and legal offices repeatedly reviewed and approved of the agency’s use of Venntel’s data. These meetings also incorporated direct privacy-by-design feedback from DHS, the features of which were incorporated into our data over the course of the contract. Venntel participated in a large-scale privacy and legal review with DHS as late as September 5, 2019, well after the June 2019 date that Politico inaccurately claims. DHS privacy and legal offices authorized the continued use of Venntel’s data following this meeting.

From the start, Gravy developed its data platform with consumer privacy in mind. We take consumer privacy seriously and ensure that our data remains compliant with all industry and legal requirements. We also work closely with our data suppliers to ensure the data we process comes from device users who have opted-in to the collection of device identifiers and geolocation signals, and we apply this standard on a global level, regardless of whether this requirement exists in the jurisdiction where the device is present. Perhaps most importantly, we collaborate with all of our customers, including during Venntel’s previous engagement with DHS, to ensure that our products meet their specific privacy requirements.

For more information, we provide a full explanation of our consumer privacy protection practices, and how our data is used on our website: https://gravyanalytics.com/consumer-privacy/