• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Senator Ron Wyden on Wednesday reiterated his call for a new federal privacy law after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel testified at a hearing that the agency purchases "commercially available" data.

"The FBI uses all tools ... to do our mission," Patel said. "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."

That answer came in response to Wyden's question: "Can you commit this morning to not buying Americans' location data?"

Wyden interpreted Patel's answer as him saying in "intelligence lingo" that the agency will buy location data.

The lawmaker added that doing so without a warrant "is an outrageous end run around the Fourth Amendment" and is "particularly dangerous given the use of artificial intelligence to comb through massive amounts of private information."

Wyden went on to say that Patel's response was "Exhibit A" for why Congress should pass the proposed Government Surveillance Reform Act. The bill includes a provision that would generally require federal personnel to obtain a warrant before acquiring people's location data, web browsing history, internet search history and other information.

Courts have not definitively said what purchases of location data would be consistent with the Constitution and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to Alan Butler, president and CEO of the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Given the legal uncertainty, "the FBI could buy as much data as it wants, and assert the legal position that it's allowed to do that," Butler tells MediaPost.

Wyden is among the sponsors of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, first introduced five years ago. That bill would require federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain a court order before buying personal information from data brokers, and also prohibit government agencies from purchasing data obtained through deception or violations of a privacy policy.

The House passed the bill last year, but the Senate has not.

The ad industry group Network Advertising Initiative supported that bill, as did more than 40 advocacy organizations including the Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Free Press.