Admission came during questioning at Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has started buying location data on Americans, Kash Patel, FBI director, said under oath at the Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing on Wednesday.
Patel’s admission came in response to a question from the senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is a longtime opponent of the warrantless surveillance of Americans. Wyden told Patel that his predecessor, Christopher Wray, testified in 2023 that the FBI did not at that time purchase location data derived from internet advertising, although he acknowledged that it had done so in the past.
Their reasoning about getting around the law is that if it’s commercially available, it isn’t government surveillance. And I can’t really argue with that. It’s immoral but it’s not illegal.
Well, we could pass a law, or even ammendment, that defines a kind of bill of rights for digital data privacy.
But that would require a functioning, non corrupt government.
Which would have required countermanding Citizens United with something similar, a big law or ammendment.
But nope, instead we have a corrupt system that cannot be fixed from the inside, that now is just openly, nakedly corrupt and arbitrary.
Our bill of rights really should extend to digital data by default. Technology is so integrated into our lives that phones and computers should be treated more akin to personal offices. I feel like grabbing our data from our personal space challenges the fourth amendment.