Local Police Bypass Warrants and Subpoenas, Buy Info From Data Brokers Instead

An argument that is often made to justify the NSA warrantless wiretapping program goes: "Oh, who cares? Companies sell and get your personal information all the time. Your data is a common commodity these days." I would suppose that the logic behind this argument is that, since anybody can get a hold of your personal information, what difference does it really make? Who cares if businesses have data on your private lives?

Well, a Yahoo news report posted today shows us why that is, in fact, a bad thing:

WASHINGTON - Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.

These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press.

The law enforcement agencies include offices in the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department — including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service — and municipal police departments in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services.

You read that right.

Some more quotes:

The congressman said laws on the subject are vague: "There's a good chance there are some laws being broken, but it's not really clear precisely which laws."

Heh, really?

James Bearden, a Texas lawyer who represents four such data brokers, compared the companies' activities to the National Security Agency, which reportedly compiles the phone records of ordinary Americans.

"The government is doing exactly what these people are accused of doing," Bearden said. "These people are being demonized. These are people who are partners with law enforcement on a regular basis."

"The NSA is illegally putting together a database of every American's phone calls and data-mining internet traffic in a program that, when revealed, caused a media shitstorm to strike! If they can do it, why can't we?!"

It's amazing how these people think.

The FBI's top lawyers told agents as early as 2001 they can gather private information about Americans from data brokers, even information gleaned from mortgage applications and credit reports, which normally would be off-limits to the government under the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act.

This is absolutely insane. Doesn't privacy or the rule of law matter to anybody anymore?

The more I read about this sort of thing, the more I feel like I'm opening a can of worms that is much bigger than anything I could have imagined...