SEC Renews Contract with Babel Street for AI-Powered Surveillance Agents
Key Takeaways
- ▸SEC renewing contract with Babel Street for AI surveillance agents monitoring phone locations, social media, and credit data
- ▸Babel Street's Locate X platform—which tracks personal cellphones without user consent—explicitly referenced in renewal procurement documents
- ▸Government repurposing post-9/11 counterterrorism surveillance infrastructure for domestic monitoring applications
Summary
The Securities and Exchange Commission is renewing a multi-million dollar contract with data broker Babel Street to acquire artificial intelligence-powered agents for monitoring cellphone locations, social media activity, and credit header data. The new contract renewal, worth $1.4 million over five years, begins August 14, 2026, and explicitly references Babel Street's controversial Locate X platform—which collects precise GPS coordinates from civilians' smartphones through arrangements with app developers.
The procurement documents, published on SAM.gov, indicate the SEC seeks "cloud-based software solution that provides real-time data aggregation, analytics, and risk intelligence capabilities." The renewed contract represents a continuation of Babel Street's relationship with the agency that began in August 2021. The deal comes amid a broader shift in government surveillance, with Treasury officials explicitly stating they are repurposing post-9/11 counterterrorism surveillance tools for domestic monitoring applications.
- Babel Street's leadership includes former CIA Counterterrorism Center officers and other ex-intelligence community executives
