Congress has rejected a bill that would require the federal
government to obtain a warrant to spy on Americans’ private data via
third parties.
HR 4639, “The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act” (FANSA), would
amend the U.S. code to clarify that the Fourth Amendment applies to
information obtained through commercial means in addition to traditional
searches.
The bill would have prohibited the US. government from purchasing Americas’ private data without a valid warrant.
Theepochtimes.com
reports: The bill was widely believed to have broad bipartisan support
and was a critical piece of ongoing negotiations to extend authorization
for the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, which effectively allows the government to spy on
American citizens if those citizens have communicated with someone
outside the country.
The bill was voted down 176–246, with one lawmaker voting present.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) said on the House floor that the
amendment was required to end intelligence agencies’ ability to
circumvent the Fourth Amendment by obtaining information without a
warrant.
“This bill is exactly the type of legislation needed to rein in the
federal government and protect the privacy rights of Americans,” Ms.
Hageman said.
“Instead of going to a judge to demonstrate probable cause and obtain
a warrant, government agencies like the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement
Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security can simply turn to data
brokers and purchase mass amounts of Americans’ data.”
Ms. Hageman noted that the information obtained by the federal
government from data brokers includes personal information obtained by
tracking Americans at their places of worship and at protests.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) likewise said the bill had broad
bipartisan support, noting that it was approved to move to the floor in a
rare unanimous committee vote.
“We have the Fourth Amendment for a reason. If law enforcement wants
to gather information about you, they should first obtain a warrant.
They should have to go to a judge and explain why there’s probable cause
and why they need to know this information.”
“That anyone should have Americans’ private information is highly
troubling to me,” Mr. Nadler said. “That our federal government can
obtain it without a warrant should be troubling to all of us.”
The Biden administration and senior intelligence leaders have fought
against any effort to reform the government’s expansive intelligence
collection apparatus that would mandate it obtain warrants to purchase
information.
The saga follows the January release of correspondence between Sen.
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and the Department of Defense, which outlined that
the National Security Agency (NSA) is buying Americans’ personal
information from data brokers en masse without obtaining warrants.
The data the government is purchasing includes data that was illegally obtained by the data brokers it is purchasing from.
“The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady
industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just
unethical, but illegal,” Mr. Wyden wrote at the time.
The letters revealed that the DoD and its intelligence-related wings
have effectively been circumventing Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights
by using commercial means to obtain private information without the
warrants that would be required to obtain such data from service
providers.
Records purchased from data brokers by the federal government include
IP addresses, metadata, and geolocation data, among other things, which
can reveal what websites Americans visit, what apps they use, and even
their personal medical histories.
Gen. Paul Nakasone, who serves as director for the NSA, argued at
that time that the Fourth Amendment does not protect Americans’
information if it is commercially available, even if it was obtained by
the seller illegally.
That statement is built on the DoD’s interpretation of Carpenter v.
United States, a 2018 Supreme Court case that found the government could
not obtain Americans’ cellphone location data and other information
from service providers without a warrant.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order in February to prevent
hostile nations from purchasing the sensitive data of U.S. residents
through legal sources, but has maintained the United States must retain
the ability to combat terrorism.
A Jan. 9 FTC finding
ruled, however, that data brokers must be prohibited from sharing or
selling any sensitive location data after determining that many apps
collecting these types of data were obtained illegally, with the
individual using the app never being informed or consenting to have
their personal information sold to the government.
As such, the legality of the practice is now an issue of some contention.
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Author: Planet Today
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