The NSA has been accused of purchasing Americans’ internet browsing data from commercial data brokers without warrants, according to newly released documents.
Senator Ron Wyden called for an end to the unlawful use of Americans’ personal data without their knowledge and consent.
The agency defended the purchases, claiming the information is valuable for national security and cybersecurity missions.
“The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal,” Wyden wrote.
“Such records can identify Americans who are seeking help from a suicide hotline or a hotline for survivors of sexual assault or domestic abuse,” he wrote.
“At all stages, NSA takes steps to minimize the collection of U.S. person information, to include application of technical filters,” an agency spokesperson said.
Wyden has requested the intelligence community to build an inventory of Americans’ personal data that the NSA has and purge any data that does not comply with FTC standards.
“Until recently, the data broker industry and the intelligence community’s purchase of data from these shady companies has existed in a legal gray area, which was in large part due to the secrecy surrounding the practice,” Wyden wrote. “App developers and advertising companies did not meaningfully disclose to users their sale and sharing of personal data with data brokers nor seek to obtain informed consent.”
“Should IC elements have a specific need to retain the data, such need, and a description of any retained data, be conveyed to Congress and, to the greatest extent possible, to the American public,” he wrote.
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