U.S. Government Bypassing 4th Amendment by Buying Your Personal Information from “Data Brokers”

The US has been buying “large” amounts of commercially available data on internet users for the purposes of spying, according to a new government report.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Friday declassified(Opens in a new window) a report from January 2022 that outlines the US government’s approach to using Commercially Available Information (CAI), which can come from data brokers working in the internet ad and analytics industries. The purchased information includes details from users' smartphones and social media accounts. Although the data is usually stripped of personal details, the report notes: “It is often possible (using other CAI) to deanonymize and identify individuals, including US persons.” The agencies buying the information include the FBI, the Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency, along with a redacted government group, which might be the CIA(Opens in a new window). But the report also concedes the same government purchases risk harming US citizens since the acquired data could be exploited to find out someone’s personal details, including their sex life. The declassification of the report prompted Sen. Wyden to call on the US government to rein in the “unchecked” surveillance. “According to this report, the ODNI does not even know which federal intelligence agencies are buying Americans' personal data,” he said in a statement(Opens in a new window). “If the government can buy its way around Fourth Amendment due-process, there will be few meaningful limits on government surveillance.”