NSA Admits to Buying Americans’ Internet Data
Senator Ron Wyden said it took him three years to disclose the details.
- Weeks after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned two firms for failing to uphold set standards for commercial data activities, Oregon senator Ron Wyden disclosed that the NSA obtains it unlawfully, too.
- The senator said it took him three years to disclose the details.
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is confirmed to have been purchasing Americans’ data from online data brokers. Last week, senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) released a letter he penned to Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, confirming the same and highlighting the unlawful manner in which it was obtained.
Wyden lamented that intelligence agencies gather American citizen data from communications companies, which generally require a court order without one. The data in question reveals individuals browsing patterns, the websites they visit, the applications they access, etc.
“I first revealed in 2021 that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was purchasing, storing, and using domestic location data. Such location data is collected from Americans’ smartphones by app developers, sold to data brokers, resold to defense contractors, and then resold again to the government. In addition; the National Security Agency (NSA) is buying Americans’ domestic internet metadata,” Wyden noted.
The revelation can be disconcerting, especially to those with a sensitive search history about their health, social life, work, and more. Metadata could enable anyone with access to it to study sensitive locations they are visiting, including medical facilities, places of religious worship, places that may be used to infer an LGBTQ+ identification, domestic abuse shelters, and welfare and homeless shelters.
The data in question can also reveal a person’s gambling addiction, suicidal tendencies (through the data on their calls to the suicide hotline, their history of calling the hotline for survivors of sexual assault or domestic abuse, and more.
Wyden, a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member, provided his office’s correspondence with NSA officials who confirmed sourcing American citizens’ data without a court order.
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Here’s a screengrab of the under secretary of defense for intelligence & security (USDI&S) Ronald Moultrie’s follow-up letter to Wyden following NSA director Paul Nakasone:
NSA Correspondence With Senator Ron Wyden
Source: Senator Wyden’s Office
Wyden’s latest disclosure comes three years after revealing the one on the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Wyden also noted that it took three years for him to achieve a breakthrough in being able to disclose this information publicly only after he held off the nomination of Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh as the NSA director, who would succeed Nakasone.
Wyden urged Haines to curb this unlawful practice by the intelligence community. “The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal. To that end, I request that you adopt a policy that, going forward, IC elements may only purchase data about Americans that meets the standard for legal data sales established by the FTC.”
For reference, the FTC charged X-Mode Social and Outlogic with unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce for selling user data without acquiring consent.
How can the FTC enforce data sales standards? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn, X(Twitter), or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
Image source: Shutterstock
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