“We have purchased access to that system but we have not used it for a criminal case because we have not established any policies yet on how we would do it,” ATF Director Robert Cekada told lawmakers under questioning — a disclosure that preceded the agency’s cancellation of a commercial geolocation contract.
How the purchase came to light in Congress
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives canceled a contract with Penlink for a commercial location‑surveillance capability after Director Robert Cekada acknowledged the acquisition during congressional questioning by Rep. Michael Cloud, R‑Texas. Cekada described the product during the exchange as “an ad‑tech type thing” that would provide geolocation data “based on the ads that go through.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, D‑Ore., said he requested and his staff received a briefing from the ATF on June 12, during which Cekada identified the purchase as a license for Penlink’s Webloc commercial location surveillance tool. In that briefing, Wyden’s office reports, the ATF told staff the agency had already run more than 340 searches in Webloc, including more than 222 searches directly tied to active ATF case numbers.
What Penlink’s Webloc is advertised to do
Penlink’s website describes the firm as “an open‑source intelligence analysis platform” that provides real‑time data collection, forensic and web analysis, and digital evidence collection. The company touts “AI‑driven analysis” that it says increases case resolution rates by 80% and the ability to “tie disparate data together to one subject, place, or group using comprehensive identity resolution capabilities.” The ATF’s characterization and the company’s marketing language together frame Webloc as a commercial tool that maps advertising and ad‑tech signals to location information.
ATF’s cancellation and the agency’s explanation
In an email to CyberScoop, an ATF spokesperson confirmed the contract had been canceled and described the purchase as a limited pilot project for capabilities the agency is no longer seeking. “We did conduct a pilot with Webloc to determine if it could improve our investigative capabilities. After completing our review, we determined the tool does not meet our needs and cancelled the contract,” the spokesperson wrote. The ATF added it is “not currently using any other ad‑tech‑sourced services.”
When Cekada told Cloud that the agency had purchased access but not used it in a criminal case, he said the system and data were “novel” and the agency was still working on how to craft policy and guidance for agent use.
Legal discomfort, prosecutorial concerns, and the shift to tower data
Wyden’s office said the ATF encountered legal and prosecutorial pushback in at least one instance: the tool was used to get location data for devices associated with a defense contractor at the time of a suspected arson, but prosecutors and a judge expressed “serious discomfort with the use of warrantless adtech data.” According to the account, the ATF then chose to seek a court order for bulk cell phone tower data instead of relying on the ad‑tech source for that prosecution.
Wyden’s office also noted that the purchase of ad‑tech geolocation data is illegal in some states and that the Federal Trade Commission has already found that selling sensitive location data to government agencies and contractors can constitute deceptive or unfair practices under the FTC Act.
What this means for prosecutors, privacy advocates, and Congress
- Prosecutors and judges: The episode underlines a willingness among some prosecutors and at least one judge to push back on warrantless ad‑tech sources, prompting the ATF to seek a court order for traditional tower data in a contested case.
- Privacy advocates and affected individuals: Wyden framed the cancellation as a victory for constitutional rights and pointed to real‑world harms — including a lawsuit by a University of Tennessee student alleging that ad‑tech geolocation was used to target nonconsensual ads to men near her — to illustrate the privacy risks of commercial ad‑tech surveillance.
- Congress and regulators: Wyden urged congressional action, saying “Canceling this contract is a victory for Americans’ constitutional rights” but that privacy protections should not depend on ad hoc interventions. He called for passage of the Government Surveillance Reform Act to “close the data broker loophole once and for all.”
The ATF’s reversal leaves several concrete threads unresolved: how federal law and executive‑branch policy will treat commercial ad‑tech geolocation going forward; whether other agencies will continue or discontinue similar pilots; and whether Congress will act on the legislative fix Sen. Wyden proposed. For now, the agency says it has canceled the Webloc pilot and is not using other ad‑tech sources — and a debate that touches prosecutors, judges, legislators and privacy advocates remains very much alive.
