Director Kash Patel said during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that the FBI is purchasing information that can be used to track people’s movements and location history.<\/p>\n
This is the first confirmation that the agency is actively buying people’s data. Since former director Christopher Wray said in 2023<\/a> The FBI had purchased location data in the past but was not doing so at the time.<\/p>\n “We purchase commercially available information that is consistent with the laws under the Constitution and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and that has given us some valuable intelligence,” Patel told senators at the Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing.<\/p>\n US Supreme Court has asked law enforcement agencies to obtain warrants People’s location data has been obtained from cell phone providers since 2018<\/a>But data brokers offer an alternative route by purchasing information directly.<\/p>\n Many lawmakers want to end this practice. Sense. Ron Widen<\/a> (D-ore.) and mike lee<\/a> (R-Utah) introduced Government Oversight Reform Act<\/a> On March 13, which would require federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain warrants to purchase Americans’ personal information.<\/p>\n “Doing this without a warrant is an outrageous overreach around the Fourth Amendment, and it’s especially dangerous because artificial intelligence is used to sift through massive amounts of personal information,” Wyden said at Wednesday’s hearing.<\/p>\n The bill has a House counterpart introduced by Rep. zoe lofgren<\/a> (D-California) and warren davidson<\/a> (R-Ohio).<\/p>\n