FBI resumes purchasing Americans' location data
Change
The FBI has resumed buying commercially collected Americans' data and location histories from data brokers to support federal investigations.
Why it matters
The FBI has resumed purchasing commercially collected Americans' data and location histories from data brokers to support federal investigations. Data brokers source location and other identifiable information from consumer phone apps, games, and ad-tech systems including real-time bidding. The agency states those purchases are consistent with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Lawmakers raised constitutional concerns about purchases of Americans' location data without warrants.
Implications
- • Investigative teams have a purchasable source of location histories and consumer identifiers for federal probes.
- • Ad-tech and real-time-bidding data flows function as supply channels for agencies acquiring location and targeting data.
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