Venntel, a subsidiary of Gravy Analytics, sells precise cell phone location data to ICE harvested from the advertising technology (“ad-tech”) ecosystem. Through Venntel, ICE can track people’s movements – home, church, medical appointments, school, protests – without a warrant, using only a purchase order.

How It Works

When mobile apps request location permissions for advertising purposes, the phone’s GPS coordinates enter the “bid-stream” – the real-time advertising auction system. Venntel intercepts and aggregates this data, repackaging it for government clients. The data is precise enough to identify:

• Where a person lives
• Where they work
• Where they worship
• Where their children go to school
• Whether they attended a protest

ICE Spending

ICE spent $60+ million from 2025-2026 on location data contracts through data brokers including Venntel and Babel Street.

FTC Enforcement (December 2024)

The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Gravy Analytics and Venntel for knowingly collecting and selling user location data without consent, including for sensitive locations relating to medical conditions, religious affiliation, and political activities. However, this enforcement action has not stopped ICE from continuing to explore and expand the ad-tech surveillance market.

2026 Expansion

In January 2026, ICE posted a request for information explicitly referencing “ad tech” and “big data tools” – the first time ICE has used the term “ad tech” in federal procurement documents. This signals ICE intends to further institutionalize the ad-tech-to-surveillance pipeline.

Sources

• Vice: How ICE contractor tracks phones around the world
• The Register: ICE takes aim at ad-tech data (Jan 2026)
• Biometric Update: ICE seeks ad tech location data (Feb 2026)
• Prism Reports: ICE surveillance apparatus expanding (Jan 2025)
• Wikipedia: Gravy Analytics
• State of Surveillance: ICE $85B surveillance arsenal