The FBI is buying information that can be used to track people’s movements and local history, Director Kash Patel said during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
It is the first proof that the agency is actively buying people’s dataas former Director Christopher Wray said in 2023that the FBI had purchased location data in the past but was not doing so at the time.
“We are purchasing commercially available information that is consistent with the Constitution and the law under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has provided us with valuable intelligence,” Patel told senators at the annual meeting of the Global Threat Intelligence Committee.
The US Supreme Court has required law enforcement agencies to obtain a permitgetting people’s location data from mobile phone service providers since 2018but data brokers provide an alternative to buying information directly.
Many members of parliament want to stop this practice. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced itGovernment Surveillance Reform Acton March 13, which would have required federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant to buy Americans’ personal information.
“Doing so without a warrant is an outrageous end run by the Fourth Amendment, especially dangerous given the use of artificial intelligence to comb through so much personal information,” Wyden said at Wednesday’s hearing.
The bill has a House counterpart introduced by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).
Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) defended the exercise at the hearing.
“Keywords are commercially available. If anyone else can buy it, and the FBI can buy it, and it helps them find a child abuser or a gang leader, I would certainly hope the FBI is doing whatever it takes to keep Americans safe,” he said.
Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams told senators at the hearing that his agency also buys commercially available information.
