Rights Groups Say the Pentagon Is Buying Its Way Around the Fourth Amendment
Dell Cameron - Yesterday 6:55 PM
Twenty-two civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Demand Progress, and theElectronic Frontier Foundation have signed a letter accusing the Pentagon and the executive branch of exploiting a legal loophole to surveil Americans absent congressional oversight or approval from the courts.
The Fourth Amendment generally prohibits the government from bypassing judges when demanding access to cellphone data tracking Americans’ whereabouts. But the Biden administration, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, seems to have grown comfortable with the idea of buying its way around the Constitution.
The rights groups and their letter pursue a rather small goal. While several have already called for banning government purchases of sensitive personal data, this week, they are working to achieve only the barest modicum of transparency. That is: requiring the Pentagon to disclose purchases of data originating in the U.S. that would otherwise be illegal to intercept or demand with the military’s own tools.
“This rapidly expanding practice represents an enormous and irreversible threat to constituents’ right to privacy,” Sean Vitka, senior policy counsel at Demand Progress, told Gizmodo.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/rights-groups-say-the-pentagon-is-buying-its-way-around-the-fourth-amendment/ar-AA12stAY?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=275140147dd94a198c1d940915593d0a
