Author James Bovard has written a worrisome piece over at the New York Post that notes how the federal government is buying tons of personal data from companies that could be used against us in the future in a variety of ways meant to keep people in line.

(Video Credit: Fox Business)

“Federal agencies are secretly accumulating mountains of data that could be used for ‘blackmail, stalking, harassment and public shaming’ of American citizens,” Bouvard disturbingly points out in his piece. “That allegation doesn’t come from a pink-haired civil-liberties fanatic — it’s in a new report for the nation’s chief spymaster, Avril Haines.”

He goes on to allude to how the powers in Washington, DC are abusing the Fourth Amendment which recognizes that all Americans have a right “to be secure … against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

“But Washington is mothballing that lofty standard for a new motto: ‘Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear,'” he writes.

“The latest federal surveillance tsunami is being spurred by purchases of commercially available information (CAI) that private companies vacuum up from data from smartphones, computers and other digital devices and trackers,” Bouvard notes.

(Video Credit: NewsNation)

The Director of National Intelligence report ominously warned, “CAI Increases the Power of the Government. The government would never have been permitted to compel billions of people to carry location tracking devices on their persons at all times, to log and track most of their social interactions, or to keep flawless records of all their reading habits.”

But now they are allowed to do just that. The federal government has been using data against Americans for a long time now. But with the advent of ever more advanced technology, tracking citizens is becoming increasingly easy for them. So is the temptation to keep Americans in line by using that data against them evidently.

Bouvard accurately describes it in his op-ed, “But the contrast between that data and the new data is the difference between ‘a ride on horseback’ and ‘a flight to the moon,’ as a federal court declared in 2014.”

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that police needed a search warrant to seize tracking data on a person’s car. Big Brother is now bypassing all of that by simply buying up the information from data brokers.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) rang the alarm on the invasion of privacy by the federal government, “If the government can buy its way around Fourth Amendment due process, there will be few meaningful limits on government surveillance.”

Bouvard further reported, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bought private data from tens of millions of cellphones to check obedience to COVID lockdown and curfew decrees. A California county paid for information revealing how many people attended each church during COVID lockdowns. The Internal Revenue Service purchased location and tracking data from a private firm that sells data harvested from dating apps.”

To put it into context, everything you enter into Google, Amazon, or on your Smartphone, computer, or digital device is for sale. And the federal government is on a spending spree.

How US intelligence is ducking the law with help from data brokers https://t.co/dn0wrtYd9T pic.twitter.com/nIrs3NsgTt

— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) June 15, 2023

CAI reveals all the websites you have visited, any tweets that you have liked or retweeted, anywhere you have driven, and just about anything you have bought with a credit card according to the op-ed. The concerning move by the government is ripe for abuse, especially politically.

The author goes on to elaborate, “The National Security Agency exploits ‘personal vulnerabilities’ by tracking its allegedly radical targets ‘viewing sexually explicit material online.’ If G-men start asking questions, you can’t get away with repeating 500 times that you were “just doing research for my sociology class.”

Bouvard then asked a question in his piece that cuts directly to the heart of the issue, “Do the feds have the right to know exactly when and where you went for coffee this morning but you have no right to see the FBI report on President Joe Biden and an alleged $5 million bribe?”

“Are the feds entitled to know if you ever attend any political protest while the FBI refuses to reveal even the names of 278,000 Americans it recently illegally surveilled?” he astutely asked.

The author then lists a number of other ways Americans’ privacy has been violated:

• Customs agents are entitled to seize and copy all the cellphone and laptop data from American citizens returning home from abroad. Any information vacuumed up is added to a massive database that the feds retain for 15 years.
• The Department of Homeland Security browbeat money-transfer companies to surrender records of any transfer of more than $500 between any US state and 22 foreign nations, rifling a database of more than 150 million cash transfers.
• The Drug Enforcement Administration launched an illegal scheme to treat anyone who purchased a money-counting machine like a drug dealer. That secret program blew up after a 2019 inspector general report.

And there are likely many, many more federal surveillance programs out there that are being used against Americans. You just don’t hear about them until it is too late. Republicans are stepping into the fray over it.

Though data may be “anonymized” by brokers & sold in bulk, it does not stay anonymous in hands of U.S. spy agencies. The government report affirmatively cites a 2019 New York Times investigation that found deanonymizing commercially available information (CAI) takes mere minutes. https://t.co/wHVCsVgwVz

— Betty C. Jung (@bettycjung) June 14, 2023

“The ODNI report admits no one knows how many federal agencies are buying CAI on American citizens, but congressional Republicans are going on the warpath,” Bouvard commented. “The House Energy and Commerce Committee is ‘investigating data brokers’ … ability to sell our most sensitive information to anyone including to government agencies. This is the type of behavior we would expect from the Chinese Communist Party — not the United States.'”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) warned in 2014 that allowing the federal government to snap up personal data means “we have the government controlling us instead of us controlling the government.”

Bouvard’s closing line summed it up, “Unfortunately, there are plenty of Washingtonians who act like they have a right to seize, steal or buy any and all personal data on Americans.”

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.