The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) recently inked a tech deal that enables it to bypass locks on smartphones to essentially hack athletes it suspects of doping.
The organization, which tests athletes for illegal substance use and investigates those it believes are attempting to use drugs to enhance performance, struck a 12-month deal with Cellebrite valued at $12,780 in March to license a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), according to a disclosure.
The contract provides ASADA with the ability to “easily bypass pattern, password or PIN locks and overcome encryption challenges,” to extract information (and potential evidence) from a smartphone, according to a description of the product on Cellebrite’s website. The company promises to help its clients access “live, hidden and even deleted data from smartphones, feature phones, tablets, players, GPS devices, SIM cards, smart watches, mass storage devices, drones and more.”
“Complicated locks, encryption barriers, deleted and unknown content, and other obstacles to reviewing device data … can prevent important evidence from discovery,” Cellebrite said. “For investigations to move forward, teams need robust, efficient tools to examine device, and cloud data and produce meaningful insights without delays.”
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Some security experts have raised privacy concerns about the device, fearing it could be abused to acquire an abundance of personal data about a person without their consent, according to ABC News, an Australian news site owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Cellebrite’s technology has also been widely used by the U.S. government, including reportedly in the controversial case in 2016 when the FBI sought to unlock the iPhone 5c used by a shooter in San Bernardino. Apple refused to grant the government access to the phone, fearing that would set off a chain-reaction of requests that could put the privacy of millions of Apple users at risk. The U.S. government found a loophole with Cellebrite, which now is reportedly employed as a U.S. contractor, according to Forbes.
ASADA declined to comment to ABC News on how frequently the tool has been used to monitor athletes in Australia.
SportTechie Takeaway
Privacy concerns have been on the rise as governments increasingly leverage technology for policing. This has become a particular problem in sports, where athletes are now encouraged to wear devices that track their biometrics, often throughout the day.
The regulatory framework continues to shift and adopt to the increasing use of technology in sports. The NBA, for example, established rules in a collective bargaining agreement last summer that the data collected from athletes during practice couldn’t be used in contract negotiations. There remain concerns from many U.S. athletes, however, about how their personal and biometric data tracked with these devices might one day be used.