Federal agencies including the FBI, ICE, and CBP routinely purchase Americans personal data from commercial data brokers, circumventing Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless surveillance.
“Federal agencies including the FBI, ICE, and CBP routinely purchase Americans personal data from commercial data brokers, circumventing Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless surveillance.”
What the NSA could not do legally after the Snowden revelations, federal agencies found a workaround for: they simply buy your data on the open market.
Data brokers collect location data, browsing history, app usage, and financial information from smartphone apps. Federal agencies purchase this data without obtaining warrants. Because the data is "commercially available," agencies argue it falls outside Fourth Amendment protections.
NPR reported in March 2026 that ICE has been using data brokers extensively for surveillance. The Brennan Center documented the legal loophole. The Guardian revealed the FBI has been buying location data for years.
Millions of Americans are being tracked through their phones by their own government, without a single warrant being issued.
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