The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has admitted to purchasing location data on U.S. citizens.
During a hearing of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray confessed that the agency had purchased location data of Americans without obtaining a warrant.
“Does the FBI purchase U.S. phone-geolocation information?” asked Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), as reported by Wired.
Wray responded, “To my knowledge, we do not currently purchase commercial database information that includes location data derived from internet advertising.”
However, Wray acknowledged that the bureau “previously — as in the past — purchased some such information for a specific national security pilot project.”
“But that’s not been active for some time,” Wray clarified, adding that the agency does not purchase data at the present time and has “no plans to change that.” However, he did not explain why the practice had ended.
Wray said the FBI now has a “court-authorized process” for accessing location data but did not specify any details about the process. Wired reported that it is unclear whether he was referring to a warrant or some other legal loophole.
The Dallas Express reached out to the FBI National Press Office for clarification but received no response by press time.
“The public needs to know who gave the go-ahead for this purchase, why, and what other agencies have done or are trying to do the same,” said Sean Vitka, policy attorney at Demand Progress, a nonprofit organization that claims to be “spearheading the fight against warrantless mass surveillance,” as reported by Wired.
Vitka claimed further that the implications of Wray’s comments are “horrifying” and that Congress should ban government agencies altogether from purchasing data.
The Supreme Court held in its 2018 decision on Carpenter v. United States that government agencies could not obtain historical location data without a warrant as it violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
However, agencies reportedly have exploited existing legal loopholes to continue purchasing data from private brokers.
The Center for Democracy & Technology believes its research demonstrates that “law enforcement agencies are among the customers of some data brokers, spending millions of dollars to gain access to private sector databases which often contain very sensitive and very personal information on individuals,” according to a report released in 2021.