US Spies Are Buying Americans’ Private Data. Congress Has a New Chance to Stop It
A “MUST-PASS” DEFENSE bill wending its way through the United States House of Representatives may be amended to abolish the government practice of buying information on Americans that the country’s highest court has said police need a warrant to seize.
Though it’s far too early to assess the odds of the legislation surviving the coming months of debate, it’s currently one of the relatively few amendments to garner support from both Republican and Democratic members.
Introduction of the amendment follows a report declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence—the nation’s top spy—which last month revealed that intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been buying up data on Americans that the government’s own experts described as “the same type” of information the US Supreme Court in 2018 sought to shield against warrantless searches and seizures.
A handful of House lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, have declared support for the amendment submitted late last week by representatives Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio, and Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat.
The bipartisan duo is seeking stronger warrant requirements for the surveillant data constantly accumulated by people’s cellphones.
They argue that it shouldn’t matter whether a company is willing to accept payment from the government in lieu of a judge’s permission.
“Warrantless mass surveillance infringes the Constitutionally protected right to privacy,” says Davidson.
The amendment, he says, is aimed chiefly at preventing the government from “circumventing the Fourth Amendment” by purchasing “your location data, browsing history, or what you look at online.”
A copy of the Davidson-Jacobs amendment reviewed by WIRED shows that the warrant requirements it aims to bolster focus specifically on people’s web browsing and internet search history, along with GPS coordinates and other location information derived primarily from cellphones.
It further encapsulates “Fourth Amendment protected information” and would bar law enforcement agencies of all levels of jurisdiction from exchanging “anything of value” for information about people that would typically require a “warrant, court order, or subpoena under law.”
Edward Snowden would tweet the article, commenting “Achieving totalitarian control by invisibly exploiting the public’s dependence on essential technologies: techtalitarianism?”
Source:Wired.com
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