Leak of Russian ‘Threat’ Part of a Bid to Kill US Surveillance Reform, Sources Say
Leak of Russian ‘Threat’ Part of a Bid to Kill US Surveillance Reform, Sources Say
A surprise disclosure of a national security threat by the House Intelligence chair was part of an effort to block legislation that aimed to limit cops and spies from buying Americans' private data.
The impetus for killing the deal, WIRED has learned, was an amendment that would end the government's ability to pay US companies for information rather than serving them with a warrant. This includes location data collected from cell phones that are capable in many cases of tracking people’s physical whereabouts almost constantly. The data is purportedly gathered for advertising purposes, but it is collected by data brokers and frequently sold to US spies and police agencies instead.
Assholes gotta asshole I guess.
TLDR: privacy law won't pass because it would limit the government's right to buy "commercially available data" on anyone without a warrant
This includes location data collected from cell phones that are capable in many cases of tracking people’s physical whereabouts almost constantly. The data is purportedly gathered for advertising purposes...
A government that actually cares about privacy wouldn't be debating 'should we be able to buy that data', it would be asking the real question 'why the fuck is it legal to collect and sell that data?'
Even if we pretend that data will only ever be used for ads, it's still not fucking OK for advertisers to stalk everyone everywhere 24/7 (and every use other than ad stuff is probably worse)
They have until April to get this done.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/02/07/congress/spy-powers-redux-in-the-house-00140257
It's true, but the time pressure is likely to be used to try to get a weak "compromise" bill through.