1. United States
2. S.C.
3. Letter

Kash Patel’s disclosure Wednesday confirms that the FBI has resumed buying location data on Americans. Many people, including members of Congress, are wondering how private information get into the hands of the US government in the first place, and how can federal law enforcement use that information to track peoples’ whereabouts? Federal law enforcement agencies generally must obtain a warrant, which requires establishing probable cause in the eyes of a judge, to gather historical or real-time cell phone location data. The US Supreme Court has ruled that the fourth amendment to the US constitution, which protects against “unreasonable search and seizure”, prohibits the warrantless collection of individuals’ location histories. By the FBI buying such information en masse, they can circumvent this requirement, leading many privacy advocates to label the practice unconstitutional. When Senator Wyden questioned Patel, he responded, "We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us,” Congress must act to put in place laws to protect consumers data from predatory collection, even if it means stopping the US government. It's time to uphold the American peoples' 4th amendment rights. Please publicly denounce this practice and immediately open an investigation into this unlawful action by the FBI under Patel's leadership. Prevent him from repeating the gross violations against Americans' privacy that J. Edgar Hoover carried out.