Your data is being bought

Federal agencies including the FBI, ICE, and IRS are purchasing Americans' location data from third-party data brokers without warrants, exploiting a legal loophole left open by the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that only restricted carriers. Because a middleman broker is involved, agencies argue this doesn't constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment. FBI Director Kash Patel declined to commit to stopping the practice when asked by Senator Ron Wyden. The threat is amplified by AI, which can now reconstruct detailed behavioral profiles from bulk anonymous location data — revealing where people sleep, work, worship, and who they meet — making data collected by ordinary apps like flashlight or weather tools effectively government surveillance infrastructure.