Posted on 06/14/2023 6:23:48 AM PDT by MtnClimber
A recently-declassified report alleges that multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have been actively “flouting the law” by gathering massive collections of “sensitive and intimate” data on American citizens.
According to the New York Post, the claims were made in a report to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines, which was only recently declassified and is now being amplified by watchdog groups and privacy advocates. The report details a loophole that has allowed intelligence agencies, including the FBI, DHS, and NSA, to simply buy large troves of cell phone data for tracking purposes without needing a warrant.
If the information was paid for, the report notes, then it is technically considered “publicly available.” The government only needs to ask for a warrant if they are asking to access a cell phone’s location, and thus would raise Fourth Amendment concerns necessitating a judge’s approval.
“This report reveals what we feared most,” said Sean Vitka, a policy attorney at the nonprofit Demand Progress. “Intelligence agencies are flouting the law and buying information about Americans that Congress and the Supreme Court have made clear the government should not have.”
The report, compiled by a group of advisers working for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), notes that despite being technically considered “publicly available information,” the data in question represents a significant public safety threat. The data that can be purchased, the report says, is “more revealing, available on more people, less possible to avoid, and less well understood” than was previously thought.
Such batches of data are usually sold after having been “anonymized,” with crucial details removed so that the only information about a person is their gender, age, and location. However, the ODNI report states that once this information is acquired, it is rather easy for the government “to de-anonymize and identify individuals.”
The report also issued a chilling warning, noting that if the same information purchased by the government were to wind up in the wrong hands, it could be used to “facilitate blackmail, stalking, harassment, and public shaming” against innocent and defenseless civilians.
“ The report also issued a chilling warning, noting that if the same information purchased by the government were to wind up in the wrong hands, it could be used to “facilitate blackmail, stalking, harassment, and public shaming” against innocent and defenseless civilians.”
Like the government would never use the data to blackmail or harass American citizens.
And Justice Thomas wrote an interesting opinion in that case. He said, in effect: "I don't like this, but this is what the law says. Privacy issues related to mobile phone data should be addressed through Federal statutes."
Another option here would be to have customers INSIST on data privacy when dealing with mobile service providers. I can see a business opportunity for a company with a catchy name like "Patriot Telecommunications" to compete with Verizon and T-Mobile by offering this type of guarantee in their service contracts.
I am past the point of trusting any representations of “privacy”.
If you carefully read through the Snowden disclosures it was obvious there are an almost infinite number of ways, some legal, some illegal, for intelligence agencies to scoop up domestic data.
The law is not going to fix this.
Vendor promises are not going to fix this.
Voting is not going to fix this.
The horse of “privacy” has left the barn.
The CIA is largely barred from collecting information inside the United States or on U.S. citizens. But a 1980s presidential order provided for discrete exceptions governed by procedures approved by the CIA director and the attorney general. The FISA law also enables intel agencies to conduct surveillance on US soil, with a warrant from a FISA judge. Yes, your cell phone data is owned by the cell company, but this is still collecting information on US citizens on US soil.
Your discussion of the law is correct—but at the end of the day that is irrelevant.
The CIA can use offshore vendors or foreign intelligence agencies to “do the dirty”—and compartmentalize those operations so very few people even inside the agency know what they are doing.
The CIA has lots of lawyers—but it is trivial to keep them out of the loop.
It’s irrelevant because we are no longer a republic.
The law is now whatever Deep State says it is.
Good post.
The power of the Deep State ultimately derives from its control over information/data.
That gives them the power to blackmail any public official or anyone else who gets in their way.
A case can be made that the death of the Republic is the result of the new technology—it was always likely that sociopaths would gain control over it.
Franklin was prescient.
A republic if we could keep it. And we didn’t.
I hope to God we can restore it.
“They know no one will stop or even question them.”
All the dead intelligence assets buried in mass graves during Libya’s civil war would disagree.
“The law is not going to fix this.”
A Constitutional Amendment might.
This needs to be illegal!!!
And DON’T reauthorize 702!!!
It is not just your phone data, it is also your vehicle data.
I think I am correct in saying the local police and the FBI can buy your vehicle LOCATION history from companies that track vehicles.
The cannot get your phone location without a warrant but they can get your vehicle location on a whim.
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