The House of Representatives approved changes to next year's military budget requiring the Department of Defense to start revealing purchases of smartphone or web browsing data for which a warrant would normally be required.
The approval of the House is a sign that Congress is becoming more concerned with the acquisition and use of Americans' personal data. It is not clear whether the Senate will support the House's push for more transparency. Almost no members of Congress have spoken publicly about the amendment.
The amendment would force the Department of Defense to make public whether or not it commercially obtains data that could be used to track the movements of citizens and residents of the U.S. The final budget for the next fiscal year is dependent on the outcome of congressional negotiations.
The National Defense Authorization Act was approved by the House in July. The amendment requiring the DOD to report purchases was also passed.
The Jacobs-Davidson Amendment requires the DOD to publish a report about its collection of location data from phone calls, text messages, and internet traffic. The DOD has many intelligence offices that rely on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Any data obtained in exchange for anything of value would have to be disclosed by the DOD.
One of the House sponsors said that the amendment was small. I asked what you were buying, and he said, "Look, you're buying all this data."
The DOD does not have to stop or change the way it collects or uses the data according to the amendment. It doesn't authorize the launch of a large study. It doesn't ask why you're buying it He said it was benign. It is a first step in the right direction. The Department of Defense is buying a lot of stuff.
“The abuses here take your breath away.”The Senate version of the NDAA does not currently include the language found in the Jacobs- Davidson amendment. The Senate bill is a quarter the size of the House bill.
More than two dozen civil society organizations are preparing to launch a campaign to demand that the language be included.
The consequences of secretly buying domestic internet records would be staggering. The Director of National Intelligence promised to be transparent about the government buying its way around the Fourth Amendment.
According to a declassified memo obtained by the New York Times last year, the Defense Intelligence Agency acknowledged having purchased data that could be used to track Americans. Over the course of two and half years, the agency searched the database a number of times.
The U.S. Special Operations Command acknowledged in November 2020 that it had purchased location data from a company reported to sell it to multiple agencies. The data from the Muslim prayer app was used to build one of the Pentagon's databases.
The government did not break any laws with these purchases. That is the problem for some legislators. According to the military, the Constitution requires the government to get a warrant to force companies to surrender location data, but that doesn't mean it can't buy it.
The Department of Homeland Security bought access to a database that mapped the movements of millions of people.
The abuses here take your breath away, according to a 20-year veteran of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Jacobs- Davidson amendment can only be seen in the final bill signed by the president. House and Senate leaders could agree to include it early on in the negotiations. It could be added to his bill with an amendment. The bill was added to the Senate calendar this month and could be voted on any time.
Davidson said he hopes Wyden succeeds in getting the same language in the Senate version. A Wyden spokesman confirmed his work.
Wyden said that Congresswoman Jacobs deserved a lot of credit for attaching her amendment. Americans need to know if the Pentagon is buying location data from our phones or other data.
House leaders could still fight for them if the Senate fails to pass a version of the NDAA with reporting requirements.
"As a digital native, I've been working on the federal government's role in protecting our privacy." Sometimes, we have to protect our information from the government.
There is a legal loophole that allows the Department of Defense to get Americans' digital information without a warrant. I am proud to be leading a bipartisan amendment that will help promote transparency, rein in mass surveillance, and preserve Americans' right to privacy.
Most members of the committee responded to the requests for comment. The senator is looking into the amendment, according to his spokesman. The senator's spokesman said he would try to speak to him about it.
“If government agencies have secretly operationalized purchasing domestic internet records, the consequences for privacy would be truly staggering.”The DOD uses Executive Order 12333 to authorize foreign intelligence activities that aren't regulated by federal law. The attorney general consulted with the director of national intelligence. Unless the government has specific knowledge they aren't a citizen or permanent resident, anyone located inside the U.S. is included in the definition of "U.S. persons" The exactopposite is true with overseas data.
The National Security Agency is included in the intelligence community. The space force has its own intelligence unit.
The Biden administration's pick for director of national intelligence said during her confirmation hearings that she was not familiar with the degree to which the government was buying commercially available data. She promised to be more transparent.
A framework that helps people understand the circumstances under which we do that is what I would try to promote. There is an understanding of the guidelines under which the intelligence community operations.
A Wyden spokesman said they didn't know if she followed through on her promise. Two days before the Times published the Defense Intelligence Agency's memo about its use of commercial data, the confirmation of Haines was announced. The office of the director of national intelligence did not respond to the request for comment.
Wyden said that he has been fighting for years to put a spotlight on when and how the government is using its credit card to end-run the Fourth Amendment. The amendment is about making sure Americans know what the government is doing with their data.
Legislation was introduced last year by Wyden and Nadler that would ban law enforcement and intelligence agencies from buying data without a warrant. The Electronic Frontier Foundation praised the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, saying it was a great piece of legislation.
The heads of the FBI and five other federal agencies were sent a letter by Nadler, along with the chair of the Homeland Security Committee. The pair are demanding access to the fine details of any commercial deals that may include Americans' personal data, a practice they believe is "pervasive" and happening in total secrecy.
The chairmen wrote that improper government acquisition of this data can undermine statutory and constitutional protections designed to protect Americans' due process rights.
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