US military spy agency paid for Americans' cell phone data that revealed their location information WITHOUT a search warrant
- Defense Intelligence Agency is a Pentagon-run military intelligence outfit
- DIA confirmed it paid data brokers for cell phone information from Americans
- Data brokers aggregate information collected by apps and sites and sell them
- DIA said it used data as part of five investigation in last two-and-a-half years
- Agency memo claimed DIA is not legally bound to first obtain search warrant
- Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, says he plans new privacy bill
- Wyden wants to close legal loophole allowing government access to user data
American military spies have been buying US citizens’ location data collected by smartphone apps without a warrant, according to a recently unclassified memo.
Analysts for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon-run department that specializes in military intelligence, made the revelation in a memo written to Senator Ron Wyden, the Democrat from
Oregon.
According to the memo, the DIA has searched commercial databases that contain information about the movements of American citizens as part of five separate investigations spread out over the past two-and-a-half years.
The DIA, whose main mission is to detect threats to American soldiers stationed worldwide, appears to be buying location data that specifically pertains to investigations of foreigners abroad.
The DIA admitted in the memo, first obtained by
The New York Times, that it buys the data from private data brokers and that the data isn’t vetted based on whether the smartphone user lives in the United States or abroad.
US military spies paid for Americans' cell phone data without warrant | Daily Mail Online