New surveillance accountability act targets AI data access<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nBefore AI, there were natural limits to the amount of data that governments could collect. Those boundaries no longer exist. That’s the central argument behind new legislation introduced Thursday by Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and it’s an argument that has gained rare bipartisan traction in Washington.<\/p>\n
The bill would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to require a warrant based on probable cause before federal agencies can search Americans’ digital records. It would also give individuals the legal right to sue the government for violations of the Fourth Amendment, a remedy that does not currently exist in a codified, accessible form. <\/p>\n
Naomi Brockwell, founder of the privacy nonprofit Ludlow Institute, helped draft the law with Macy’s office and described its purpose clearly: “What it does is prevent abuse of power. If law enforcement wants to go after someone, they absolutely can. They just need a warrant.”<\/p>\n
The main target of the bill is the third party doctrine, a legal precedent established through two Supreme Court cases, United States v. Miller and Smith v. Maryland, which found that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy over information shared with third parties such as banks or phone companies. Both cases predate the commercial Internet by decades. <\/p>\n
\u201cFast forward to 2026, almost everything we do involves a third party,\u201d Brockwell said. decrypt<\/i>. \u201cThe entire Internet depends on third parties, and governments have decided that when they want to search someone, they no longer need to get approval from a judge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The law also covers biometric surveillance and automated license plate reader technologies that clarify what Brockwell calls the “mosaic principle” of privacy. A single photo of the car in public does not raise any legal issues. <\/p>\n
Ten thousand location-matched snapshots of the same car, processed at the speed of the machine, clearly have something different. Companies including Palantir and Clearview AI currently sell exactly these types of AI-powered tools to law enforcement, and the bill makes no exemptions for commercial intermediaries.<\/p>\n
Brockwell said the bill already has bipartisan interest and is designed to complement existing reform efforts, including the work of Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n