How safe is your data? Report shows the U.S. spy agencies are buying your personal information
A report, initiated by the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and published on Friday, June 9, reveals that U.S. intelligence agencies are significantly increasing their procurement of American citizens’ personal data.
The report was instigated following a request from Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, who called on the intelligence community to disclose and make public its usage of commercially available information (CAI).
CAI encompasses a wide range of data, including demographic details, historical addresses, as well as data gathered from smartphones, social media platforms, other digital devices, and location trackers.
Interestingly, the report reveals that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) does not have precise knowledge about which federal intelligence agencies are acquiring the personal data of American citizens. Senator Wyden stated that this lack of clarity underscores the urgent need for more rigorous internal oversight and transparency within the executive branch of the government.
In a statement, Senator Wyden remarked, “This review shows the government’s existing policies have failed to provide essential safeguards for Americans’ privacy, or oversight of how agencies buy and use personal data. The executive branch must exercise much stronger oversight of this practice, issue guidance to agencies about the legal status of commercial data, and provide transparency to the American people about how it interprets the law.”
The report also determined that the growth and scale of CAI now mirrors the outcomes of previously used intrusive surveillance techniques, such as wiretapping, cyber espionage, and physical surveillance. These techniques were typically utilized on a narrower and more targeted basis.
The report notes, “Today, in a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid, CAI includes information on nearly everyone that is of a type and level of sensitivity that historically could have been obtained, if at all, only through targeted (and predicated) collection, and that could be used to cause harm to an individual’s reputation, emotional well-being, or physical safety. The [intelligence community] therefore needs to develop more refined approaches to CAI.”
The problem is not confined to U.S. intelligence agencies, however. The report highlights that virtually anyone can purchase Americans’ personal data. The marketplace for such data is loosely regulated, particularly in a country that currently lacks a comprehensive national privacy law.
