The Pentagon may be using commercial data to track Americans without due legal process, according to a letter from Senator Ron Wyden shared with Vice News. Wyden had queried the Department of Defense (DoD) about mobile location and other data it had purchased from commercial sources, following reports in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. The DoD replied to some questions, but several responses were redacted. “I write to urge you to release to the public information about the Department of Defense’s warrantless surveillance of Americans,” Wyden replied.
Various US law enforcement agencies have been purchasing electronic cellphone and other location data from apps installed on Americans’ phones to track alleged terrorists, illegal immigrants and other groups since at least 2017. “I have spent the last year investigating the shady, unregulated data brokers that are selling this data and the government agencies that are buying it,” the letter reads.
In February 2020, media reports revealed that US government agencies are buying location data obtained from apps on Americans’ phones and are doing so without any kind of legal process, such as a court order. I have spent the last year investigating the shady, unregulated data brokers that are selling this data and the government agencies that are buying it.
It’s illegal for government agencies to directly surveil Americans under the US Fourth Amendment without a warrant. Furthermore, the US Supreme Court asserted in 2018 that it was also illegal for law enforcement to access cellphone location data without a court order (Carpenter). According to Wyden, however, the DoD’s spy agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has adopted the position that those rules don’t apply to commercial data “that the government buys.”
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