Yesterday, 02:24 AM
From Heather Cox Richardson on March 19, 2026.
Bolded text added by me.
"In response to questioning by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), FBI Director Patel admitted that under Trump, the government has been buying information on Americans from private companies, buying location data derived from internet advertising. Wyden noted that in 2023, FBI director Christopher Wray testified that the FBI did not buy that information, although it had done so in the past."
"Wyden has always strongly opposed surveillance of Americans. He posted: 'Kash Patel refused to deny that the FBI is buying up Americans’ location data. This is a shocking end run around the 4th amendment and exactly why we need to pass real privacy reforms NOW.'"
"Concerns about data privacy have been heightened since March 10, when Meryl Kornfield, Elizabeth Dwoskin, and Lisa Rein reported in the Washington Post on a whistleblower complaint filed in January saying that a former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency claimed he had taken two highly restricted databases of information about U.S. citizens from the Social Security Administration, where he had unrestricted access, and that he planned to take them to a government contractor. Those files included the Social Security numbers, birth dates, place of birth, citizenship, race, ethnicity, and parents’ names of more than 500 million living and dead Americans."
"According to the whistleblower, the person with the files said he needed help transferring the data from a thumb drive to a personal computer in order to 'sanitize' the data before using it at his new job. When another colleague refused to help, citing concern about breaking the law, the person with the information allegedly said he expected that Trump would give him a pardon if he needed it."
Bolded text added by me.
"In response to questioning by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), FBI Director Patel admitted that under Trump, the government has been buying information on Americans from private companies, buying location data derived from internet advertising. Wyden noted that in 2023, FBI director Christopher Wray testified that the FBI did not buy that information, although it had done so in the past."
"Wyden has always strongly opposed surveillance of Americans. He posted: 'Kash Patel refused to deny that the FBI is buying up Americans’ location data. This is a shocking end run around the 4th amendment and exactly why we need to pass real privacy reforms NOW.'"
"Concerns about data privacy have been heightened since March 10, when Meryl Kornfield, Elizabeth Dwoskin, and Lisa Rein reported in the Washington Post on a whistleblower complaint filed in January saying that a former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency claimed he had taken two highly restricted databases of information about U.S. citizens from the Social Security Administration, where he had unrestricted access, and that he planned to take them to a government contractor. Those files included the Social Security numbers, birth dates, place of birth, citizenship, race, ethnicity, and parents’ names of more than 500 million living and dead Americans."
"According to the whistleblower, the person with the files said he needed help transferring the data from a thumb drive to a personal computer in order to 'sanitize' the data before using it at his new job. When another colleague refused to help, citing concern about breaking the law, the person with the information allegedly said he expected that Trump would give him a pardon if he needed it."
