AZ AG Created a Secretive, Illegal Surveillance Program to Sweep up Millions of Our Financial Record

[Nevilledog]

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/how-the-arizona-attorney-general-created-a-secretive-illegal-surveillance-program

Last year, Sen. Ron Wyden raised alarms about one of the largest government surveillance programs in recent memory. Sen. Wyden revealed that the Arizona attorney general’s office, in collaboration with the Phoenix Field Office of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, had engaged in the indiscriminate collection of money transfer records for transactions exceeding $500 sent to or from Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as to or from Mexico. Any time anyone in the U.S. used companies like Western Union or MoneyGram to send or receive money to or from one of these states or Mexico — whether to send a remittance home, or help a relative with an emergency expense, or pay a bill — a record of their transaction was deposited into a database controlled by the Arizona attorney general and shared with other law enforcement agencies.

Sen. Wyden’s revelation left significant questions about the scope and legality of this program unanswered, so the ACLU and the ACLU of Arizona submitted a public records request to the Arizona attorney general’s office to learn more. Today, we are sharing more than 200 documents that shed light on this mass surveillance of Americans’ sensitive financial data.

The records show the state of Arizona sending at least 140 illegal subpoenas to money transfer companies to compel them to turn over customers’ private financial data, amassing it in a huge database and giving virtually unfettered access to thousands of officers from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country. The database, run by an organization called the Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC), contained 145 million records of people’s financial transactions as of 2021, and we have reason to believe it’s still growing.

Western Union, MoneyGram, and other financial services companies often serve people who otherwise may not have access to bank accounts or traditional financial services, such as immigrant workers sending money back home to their families and people without credit scores. Because members of marginalized communities rely heavily on these services rather than traditional banks, the burden of this government surveillance falls disproportionately on those already most vulnerable to law enforcement overreach.

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