FBI started buying Americans’ location data again, Kash Patel confirms

Privacy advocates warned during the 2024 debate that the bill would allow the federal government to access communications devices used by almost any business in the US. At yesterday’s hearing, Wyden said that the 2024 FISA renewal “expanded the types of companies and individuals that can be compelled to assist the government in spying,” and asked Hartman if “any intelligence has been obtained as a result of this expansion.”

Hartman replied that “the provision provided us with the ability to collect foreign intelligence on personnel outside the United States,” but declined to publicly discuss more specifics. Hartman told Wyden, “I would love to talk to you in closed session about the exact specifics.”

FISA expansion may not have generated much information

The 2024 update of the law imposed requirements on any “service provider that has access to equipment used or used to transmit or store wire or electronic communications,” with exceptions for public accommodation facilities, residences, community facilities, and food service establishments. While the terminology of the law is broad, the language was broad reportedly intended To compel operators of data centers to comply with a warrant-less surveillance program.

Wyden argued that the 2024 update let the government collect data from “anyone with access to a cable box, Wi-Fi router or server”, and said Hartman’s response indicated that the change did not yield any valuable intelligence. “This should be a wake-up call to every senator that not every new spy power that is sold is truly urgent and important,” Wyden said.

Hartmann later clarified that “nothing [Section] 702 gives us the authority to target any American with a cable router or Wi-Fi device.

We don’t know whether this topic was addressed further in closed session, but Wyden’s office told Ars that he was not satisfied with Hartman’s answer. “Not only was the controversial 2024 FISA expansion written so broadly that it gave the government sweeping new powers to compel Americans to assist in government surveillance, yesterday the NSA did not even claim that it produced a single piece of intelligence,” Wyden said in a statement to Ars. “Congress should repeal this expansion, which is ripe for abuse by the executive branch.”

Separately, the NSA admitted buying records from data brokers in 2024 detailing which websites and apps Americans use.