Our surveillance state, largely fueled by the citizens of this nation, has allowed personal data to be collected through multiple legal means. This data is for sale (hells bells, the government sells census and other data that they collect as well).
The government, while nominally restrained by the 4th Amendment, has jumped on the commercial bandwagon and buys information on US citizens that they couldn’t get via a warrant. It’s there and it is legal for purchase. And they’ve decided that it is the way to go around the Constitution.
The Department of Homeland Security has been purchasing data from brokers like Venntel and Babel Street as far back as 2017, spending millions of taxpayer dollars to track the movement of millions of Americans without a warrant. ICE has been using that data to identify and arrest immigrants. CPB used it to monitor activity along the southern border, and well beyond it. The NSA has confirmed the purchase of Americans’ internet browsing data. This shadow surveillance infrastructure was built quietly, across multiple administrations, and has continued to grow.
And Supreme Court decisions are considered to be more of a speedbump than a wall:
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that law enforcement needed a warrant to obtain your location data directly from your cellphone carrier. So rather than comply with the spirit of that ruling, agencies simply went on a shopping spree. Buy the same data from a third-party broker, sources from the weather app on your phone, the game your kids play, the navigation tool you use, and suddenly, no warrant is required.
If the FBI had access to the data available today back in J. Edgar Hoover’s day, I have a feeling this country would look a lot different.
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