Nets Ignore Report CDC Tracked ‘Millions’ of Phones to Ensure COVID-19 Lockdown Order Compliance

May 4th, 2022 10:38 AM

The ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows ignored a damning new report alleging the U.S. government tracked millions of Americans to ensure compliance with the draconian COVID-19 lockdown orders.

Left-wing outlet Vice Motherboard released a jaw-dropping report May 3 headlined: “CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders.” The subhead said documents obtained by Vice showed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “planned to use phone location data to monitor schools and churches.” The article said the documents "date from 2021." In addition, the CDC reportedly “wanted to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes too.” ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News all ignored the story during their May 3 broadcasts, despite this disturbing news. [Emphasis added.]

Motherboard outlined the data that the CDC reportedly acquired:

Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works, and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated—meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people—but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns with how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.

Motherboard said the CDC used data compiled by location data firm SafeGraph, which received an investment from former Saudi Arabia intelligence head Turki bin Faisal Al Saud. The data was reportedly used for “monitoring curfews.” Specifically, the documents reportedly claimed that SafGraph’s data was “‘critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.’”

A cybersecurity expert reportedly told Motherboard that the “CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor to neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” However, noted Motherboard, “The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions ‘places of worship.’”

The Big Three apparently didn’t consider the CDC allegedly behaving like President Joe Biden’s quasi-Stasi newsworthy. 

Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192, and hold them to account for ignoring the CDC’s reportedly Orwellian behavior in tracking American citizens.

NewsBusters News Analyst Kevin Tober contributed to this report.