The FBI has returned to acquiring large quantities of Americans’ data and location histories to support federal investigations, according to the agency’s director, Kash Patel, who testified before lawmakers on Wednesday.
This marks the first acknowledgment since 2023 that the FBI is purchasing access to data collected from brokers, who gather much of their data, including location information, from consumer phone apps and games, as reported by Politico. Previously, then-FBI director Christopher Wray informed senators that while the FBI had bought access to location data in the past, it was not actively doing so at the time.
When questioned by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, about whether the FBI would refrain from buying Americans’ location data, Patel stated that the agency “uses all tools… to do our mission.”
“We purchase commercially available information that is consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act—and it has provided valuable intelligence for us,” Patel testified on Wednesday.
Wyden criticized this practice as an “outrageous end-run around the Fourth Amendment,” alluding to the constitutional provision protecting Americans from searches and seizures of their devices and data without a warrant.
An FBI spokesperson did not respond to inquiries about the agency’s practices regarding commercial data purchases, including the frequency of obtaining location data and the brokers involved.
Generally, government agencies need to persuade a judge to authorize a search warrant based on evidence of a crime before they can request private information from tech or phone companies. However, U.S. agencies have bypassed this legal process by purchasing commercially available data from entities that collect extensive location data from phone apps and other tracking technologies.
For instance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection acquired data sourced from real-time bidding services, according to a document obtained by 404 Media. These services are integral to mobile and web advertising, collecting data like location information used for ad targeting. Surveillance firms can exploit this process to gather location data, potentially selling it to brokers or federal agencies seeking to avoid the warrant process.
The FBI maintains that a warrant is not required to use such information for federal investigations, though this legal interpretation has not been tested in court.
Last week, Wyden and other lawmakers introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act, a bipartisan and bicameral bill. Among its provisions, the legislation would mandate a court-authorized warrant for federal agencies to purchase Americans’ data from brokers.