Congress Has One Chance to Require a Warrant. It's About to Miss It.

The Fourth Amendment warrant requirement was written to keep the government out of your private life: no warrant, no entry. But our government has found two ways around it: buying your personal information from private companies and weaponizing what you already handed over to it in good faith.

Here’s the trick: while the US government cannot seize your location history without a court order, it can buy it on the open market from a data broker. This widespread and increasingly concerning practice side-steps rules that should apply.

Few people know that even though the government cannot compel your phone company to hand over years of your movements without legal process, it can purchase that same information from a company that extracted it from an app you downloaded to track your steps. The government also cannot demand your financial records without first obtaining authorization from a judge, but it can just buy a profile that combines your utility bills, car registration, credit information, and even address history. These kinds of transactions are now commonplace, including without a warrant, a court order, or even a subpoena.