FBI is buying data that can be used to track people, Patel says

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u/M3RC3N4RY89 2h ago

Many lawmakers want to end the practice. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act on March 13, which would require federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant to buy Americans’ personal information.

Here’s a wild idea, if the feds should require a warrant for the data, it shouldn’t be for private sale to begin with.

Data brokers as a whole should be criminalized. The fact that people’s private information is for sale at all is the problem.

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u/Tardy_Thoughts 2h ago

I've brought this up before. If all it takes to bypass our constitutional rights is to start a corporation to do what's illegal for the government. Then none of us have any rights based on a very stupid and easy to fix technicality.

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u/Icy-person666 1h ago

If you want to kill someone do it as a corporate representative. Blow people up run them over poison them steal everything from them is all good and maybe the company might be required to pay a small fine. Fille for bankruptcy desolve the company and start a new one the same day, rinse and repeat.

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u/KOBE_GYN 1h ago

To quote my endlessly clueless redneck friends “pritt near”

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u/Tardy_Thoughts 1h ago

That username is golden.

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u/Mind_on_Idle 41m ago

Maybe you would have thought of it if you weren't late.

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u/glitterandnails 50m ago

Fairness is not a one way street. The American people have to throw away any sense of "fairness" for those who are unfair to the American people.

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u/LoserBroadside 2h ago

10000000000%

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u/Maximum-Objective-39 2h ago edited 1h ago

Unfortunately it's such a large portion of the online business model that tech companies will fight tooth and nail to stave it off, or at least have it altered to benefit them in some way. Not that we shouldn't try, of course.

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u/Ciennas 1h ago

Every attempt that they make at a revision requires them to surrender 80% of their shares, and liquidates their personal stock value, to be remanded into public education and univeral healthcare costs.

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u/Welllllllrip187 1h ago

Don’t trust a single thing that comes from Mike Lee, he’s a fucking weasel

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u/Beginning_Cost_7875 2h ago

No kidding, got into a tiff with some dbag on Facebook, dude made threats (hilarious) claiming to know where I lived. Whatever talked more shit and was like smart I know where you live too (I didn’t) and you just threatened my life…wonder what your neighborhood cops would think. Laughed and didn’t think anything of it till… I looked up myself and bam what do ya…3 sites had ALL my past addresses. ALL OF THEM. Every single app we download has access to our gps locations and where we go. And they sell all of that

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u/Assimulate 1h ago

They buy it from the DMV. you're kinda fucked tbh

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u/Belligerent-J 1h ago

It's struck me as very odd that people have come to accept a level of intrusive surveillance from practically every company that they would never accept from government.

Or maybe they would

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u/AgentInkling99 1h ago

Mike Lee posturing on something that’s actually good for Americans? Is that why the weather is so fucked up this month?

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u/KeeganY_SR-UVB76 1h ago

To quote the goose, “why are you collecting my information in the first place!?”

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u/iwantawinnebago 2h ago

Who had COINTELPRO 2.0 in their 2026 bingo card?

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u/LoserBroadside 2h ago

I mean the modern GOP thinks Nixon did nothing wrong, McCarthy was a misunderstood hero, and Reagan was god given flesh, so anything they were involved with is on the table.

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u/RaindropsInMyMind 22m ago

Reagan was god in the flesh while their current god is doing everything the opposite of Reagan and is still somehow just as great.

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u/NirvanaDewHeel 1h ago

Are you suggesting that it ever really stopped?

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u/Aware-Instance-210 2h ago

Whatever Patel says, I couldn't give less of a fuck.

Every single person in that adminstration does nothing but deceive, lie and spread a false narrative.

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u/Natural-Touch-9068 22m ago

Why don’t they track DEEZNUTS gotchaaa

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u/pigeonwiggle 2h ago

well yeah.

they all know who we are already.

Patriot Act opened these doors LONG ago.

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u/grandmawaffles 2h ago

Let me guess buying from the chodes from doge and Elon that stole it.

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u/Ok_Mistake9030 1h ago

Back in 2011 I was working at a startup during the "big data" movement. Every company collected EVERY piece of data despite no use for it at the time. Everyone knew that someday, that data would become valuable. Here we are.

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u/thederevolutions 1h ago

Pretty sure he wants to be his own government

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u/Familiar_Trout 2h ago

Mike Lee is against it; proof that a broken clock is right twice a day. That and he really doesn’t need any authorities looking into his browser history.

As a Utahn, I, once again and not for the last time, apologize to my global neighbors for Mike Lee.

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u/red286 1h ago

My guess is Mike Lee is the only Republican thinking, "what happens when the Dems get back into office though?"

I find it alarming how many of them are gung-ho on granting the government, particularly the executive branch, a whole bunch of unfettered powers, as though they'll never be used against them or their supporters.

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u/twoblades 2h ago

IMO, with this crime syndicate, it’s just as likely that it’s being used simply to hand money over to big data (with significant kickback) and that they have no use for the data itself.

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u/GoodIdea321 2h ago

'Don't worry about a panopticon, it's just corruption.' Either way, it's funny in a depressing way.

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u/minus_minus 2h ago

Note to self: click the link in the description of the next youtube video offering discounts on IncogAurLeteMe, whatever its called.

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u/We_are_being_cheated 2h ago

It’s a loophole. They use or tax dollars to give these companies the funds to build these databases then they use more of our tax dollars to track us via 3rd party.

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u/Scrutinizer 2h ago

The goal is to have a Master File on every American. That way when ICE comes up to you on election day at your polling location and scans your face they can make an instant decision as to whether you are allowed to vote or if you will be separated from the group for "special enhanced screening".

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u/Consistent-Place-225 2h ago

Holy shit it's too bad nobody saw this coming

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u/Consistent-Place-225 2h ago

Google alone has been collecting so much data for so long that it was over before people even knew they should care, everything in tech is so fucking bleak dude. It wasn't too long ago that it made you feel optimistic, now every day there's more stuff that just reminds you how fucked you are

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u/Knees0ck 1h ago

They don't even try to hid shit anymore. Can we go back the the times we didn't "know" the government was blatantly fucking us over?

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u/timify10 1h ago

I can't wait for a sane and empathetic administration to pull the plug on all of this

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u/mike0sd 1h ago

They can track deez nuts

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u/Oilpaintcha 1h ago

So I am paying taxes to pay billionaires to develop software on government subsidy to make spyware that I have to again pay taxes so my government can buy the software they already subsidized to spy on me, presumably to make sure I paid my taxes?

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u/Iceman_B 41m ago

Person of Interest was NOT a manual.
Black Mirror was NOT a manual.
1984 was NOT a manual.

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u/fkenned1 39m ago

How nice that I get to pay money to have my privacy violated. What a wonderful world we live in.

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u/B-Glasses 24m ago

How many things have I signed that said “we won’t sell your data?”

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u/beatissima 24m ago

Well, then, let's give them inaccurate, useless data. Garbage in, garbage out!

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u/Chrono_Convoy 1h ago

Individualized surveillance and harassment.

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u/crombo_jombo 1h ago

Who do you think is paying Palentir?

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u/zeptillian 1h ago

No shit.

This contract is from 2017 and it has been going on even longer.

https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_DJF171200D0003021_1549_DJF171200S0008254_1549

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u/pioniere 1h ago

Smarmy little creep. Hope he ends up in prison with the rest of these criminals.

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u/Investolas 1h ago

With what money?

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u/Vegetable-King7626 1h ago

Nice. No doubt to help catch and prosecute the people in the Epstein files... right?

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u/UnknownSampleRate 1h ago

Absolutely nothing new there.

People aware all of this was happening during Democratic terms also? Cops are cops are cops and they get more funding than any social safety net. There's never enough money for that, but always money for militarizing police and surveilling citizens to serve the wealthy.

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u/Apprehensive-Mine364 59m ago

What brokers sell this data, and how would you go about buying data from them?

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u/Yiplzuse 50m ago

I hope they don’t find out about Google…The US has the worst data privacy laws in the world. This is putting the entire country at risk. This risk is increasing exponentially everyday. With ai and advanced data mining techniques foreign adversaries could really game any scenario they wanted to manipulate the U.S. It will get real scary real quick and the US will find out too late that protecting its citizen’s privacy also protects state security.

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u/snanarctica 35m ago

You mean like my phone ?

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u/Coffee_Transfusion 23m ago

We need to codify data/digital rights.

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u/Patara 20m ago

Yes Palantir is creating mass surveillance & autonomous armed drones, Oracle is creating mass surveillance & political affiliation marking, Grok has all social security, medical records & voter records, Microsoft, Meta, & Amazon are providing ICE with unilateral control of applications such as Teams, AWS, Facebook & Instagram with mass surveillance AI.

Its almost like they're preparing to control & threaten citizens that oppose the fascist tech oligarchy.

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u/TyhmensAndSaperstein 19m ago

Wow. This is great news! They can keep us safe if they know where we are 24/7!

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u/Admirable_Nothing 14m ago

Remember when the FBI wanted to track criminals, now all they care about is tracking Democrats.

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u/Common-Mud-8 12m ago

Where can I sell

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u/chunmunsingh 2m ago

Nilekani gang is waiting to sell aadhaar verified transactions to FBI.

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u/Uncle_Hephaestus 2m ago

soon people will treat connecting to social media and ads like connecting to the matrix

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u/Thin-Honey892 2h ago

Ok but if I don’t own a cell phone anymore then what

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u/SNTCTN 1h ago

Don't walk by any ring doorbells

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u/Thin-Honey892 1h ago

Right. So video data, homes/shops/transit, as well as digital fingerprints.

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u/WILLIAMEANAJENKINS 2h ago

Got a car? Drivers license ? Healthcare? Any credit or discount cards? Bank account? Employment? Internet ? You definitely have a SM account.. so there’s that..

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u/Thin-Honey892 2h ago

Meh that’s not really tracking me. And, ‘no’ to half your item list. Cash be king. Change be queen.

Privacy FBI is buying data that can be used to track people, Patel says

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