Wyden's letter[1] is a lot more targeted than the Techdirt article. The letter says this: "The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady i

Wyden's letter[1] is a lot more targeted than the Techdirt article. The letter says this: "The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal," and refers specifically to an FTC order[2] that prohibits the government buying data from a specific shady broker (X-Mode Social). He summarizes the letter on his own site without the editorializing that honestly I love so much about Techdirt.[3] On a side-note, according to Wyden, 'Through this case, the FTC announced that Americans must be told and agree to their data being sold to “government contractors for national security purposes,” for the practice to be allowed.' I don't know how that's enforceable given how many hands user data goes through. Most organizations that suck that data up sell it to several third parties who can then sell it to whoever they want. All the NSA has to do is go a few steps down the chain. So it doesn't matter. The NSA will continue, as you noted, to lawfully buy this data from third parties who are slightly less sketchy than X-Mode Social (what a name) and the FTC's toothless rule won't change a thing. [1] https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/signed_wyden_letter_to_dni_re_nsa_purchase_of_domestic_metadata_and_ftc_order_on_data_brokers_with_attachments.pdf https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/signed_wyden_lett... [2] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/ftc-order-prohibits-data-broker-x-mode-social-outlogic-selling-sensitive-location-data https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/... [3] https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-releases-documents-confirming-the-nsa-buys-americans-internet-browsing-records-calls-on-intelligence-community-to-stop-buying-us-data-obtained-unlawfully-from-data-brokers-violating-recent-ftc-order https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-relea...