They are indiscriminately seizing private data, without warrants, without probable cause, without identifying the data to be seized, without naming the persons they target and without even any articulable suspicion -- the lowest bar needed in order to commence an investigation.
I have no interest in defending law enforcement or any government agency here ... but the author is flat-out misrepresenting one important point, and overlooks another one.
1. If the U.S. government is purchasing data from a commercial source that sells it to anyone, then it isn't seizing anything. It's gaining access to something that is already outside the personal control of its original sources.
2. There's a simple reason why the data purchased by the government can be acquired without a warrant: It no longer belongs to the person or people where it originated, so it isn't covered under the Fourth Amendment as "persons, houses, papers and effects.
You are arguing about the method by which government obtains information about its citizens, without any concern for the reason or purpose of this gathering. What is the meaning of a person being “secure in his person, papers, and effects” unless a warrant is issued?
That’s all true of course. But it doesn’t change the underlying fact. Washington DC is the most pervasive and intrusive domestic spying operation the world has ever seen. It’s immoral, and beyond the scope of what they have moral right to do. There’s no justification, or rationalization for them to amass such huge quantities of data about individuals in America. All it does is give them leverage against people, and give them father for blackmail and control. It may be legal, but it’s not legitimate. Not the DC cares anymore about morality, decency, or legitimacy. Bottom line, it’s not the behavior of a government that sees itself as wielding power gifted to them by the people. It’s the action of a government that has a people that they rule.
Good points—the cabal has gotten very clever using private firms to do their dirty work for them.
When government merges with corporations to crush the people there is a word for it....
Fascism.