Government Surveillance and Data Brokers

An NPR deep dive details how federal agencies including the FBI, Defense Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are buying bulk commercial data—especially cell-phone location records—from data brokers to track people in the United States without first getting warrants, exploiting what advocates call a 'data broker loophole' around Fourth Amendment limits. The piece reports that roughly 130 civil-society groups sent Congress a new letter urging lawmakers to close that loophole as they race to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before its April 20 expiration, warning of an 'unprecedented expansion of warrantless mass surveillance' that AI tools could 'supercharge.' At a Senate hearing last week, FBI Director Kash Patel refused Sen. Ron Wyden’s request to commit not to buy Americans’ location data, instead saying the bureau 'uses all tools' and purchases 'commercially available information' consistent with current law. The article adds that AI firm Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei has warned that government-purchased records, when combined with powerful models, can automatically assemble a comprehensive dossier on any person, a stance that has put the company in a public clash with the Pentagon over using its technology for domestic mass surveillance. The reporting underscores that even after past reforms barred bulk collection of Americans’ data, federal agencies have shifted to the open market to get similar information, and that the looming 702 debate may be the most realistic chance in years to regulate that practice.