Database aimed at fighting money-laundering is being used for bulk surveillance, says a concerned senator
Over 600 US law enforcement have accessed a little-known database tracking every money transfer above $500 for almost a decade, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing an investigation by Senator Ron Wyden. The Oregon Democrat is alarmed that Homeland Security used the tool to get six million records while looking for illegal immigrants.
The Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC) is a nonprofit set up in 2014 by Western Union, as part of a settlement with the state of Arizona. Originally intended as a way to crack down on money laundering by Mexican drug cartels, the tool has since become a way for federal, state and local police to track money transfers without a court order, the Journal reported.
In a letter requesting a federal investigation into the database, Wyden described it as “an all-you-can-eat buffet of Americans’ personal financial data” the government can access “while bypassing the normal protections for Americans’ privacy.”
TRAC reportedly contains more than 150 million records of money transfers from the US to over 20 foreign countries, but also between Americans domestically.
US laws require federal agencies to get a subpoena for bank records, and banks to report suspicious activity. Those laws do not apply to money service companies such as Western Union, MoneyGram, Euronet, DolEx and Viamericas – all of which have reportedly sent data to TRAC.
“Ordinary people’s private financial records are being siphoned indiscriminately into a massive database, with access given to virtually any cop who wants it,” Nathan Freed Wessler of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told the Journal. “This program should never have been launched, and it must be shut down now.”