I’d fully expect the FBI or CIA to do this. I’m not even sure it’s wrong for them to do that. At least no more wrong than anyone else that buys it in order to advertise you.
The NSA is chartered to collect data on communications entering and leaving the US. Decades ago that was completely unambiguous but less so now. Their collection of data on Americans is not illegal depending upon what they do with it. That was the most revealing part of the Snowden releases: insider threats misusing NSA data collected on Americans for personal use.
* Your prior comment never described any malicious depth of data collection.
* I never said anything to the contrary.
* Data collected upon individuals is not the same as data collected against individuals as the later provides intent.
This is just plain false. It is a long-held idea in American jurisprudence that information given to law enforcement by third parties can be used so long as that information was not collected under the direction of the government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine
Why would buying information you have no right to privacy for require a warrant? Police do not need warrants for generally publicly available information, and if anyone can buy this information why not police? Similar to how police do not require a warrant when they ask a phone company for records and the company just gives it to them without question.
If police ask you to search your house, you could let them or you could tell them to come back with a warrant but if you let them they can use what they find.
I don't think they are, by and large. At least, not "consent" in any meaningful sense.
NSA are not law enforcement, so comparing the NSA to law enforcement results in absurd conclusions.
It is perfectly valid for the NSA to buy that data, because the NSA cannot use that data in a way that violates the fourth amendment without breaking other laws.
If the FBI buys that data they need to have probable cause prior to that purchase else all the purchased information and everything resulting from that information cannot be used to prosecute cases. The reason is because defendants have a legally established expectation of privacy on certain electronic communications such as email.
I think we both agree that the law needs to change.
The bigger problem is that cars are required by law to have unique identifiers prominently displayed (ie. license plates), so you had very little expectation of privacy to begin with. Even if your car wasn't connecting to cell towers, a network of license plate readers can figure out your location, and it's unclear why consent would be needed in that case.
I'm not asking whether it is legal but rather should it be.
There is no excuse to be surprised by it in 2024.