NSA Confession: Unlawful Surveillance on Americans Exposed

Despite attempts to conceal details of arrangements between United States spy agencies and private companies that track the location of Americans using their cell phones, United States officials fought to conceal the details. Normally, law enforcement and intelligence agencies require a warrant to obtain data from US phones. 

Still, they usually pay companies for that data instead, effectively circumventing the courts to obtain the data. Ron Wyden, a Democratic Senator from Oregon, claims that the US National Security Agency has confirmed that it has bought the internet browsing records of American users without a warrant. 

During the past three years, Congressman Wyden has worked tirelessly to expose the NSA’s practices, including buying location data from smartphones without the need for a warrant. It was Wyden’s “warrantless purchases” that included information about websites and apps used by users. 

As a result, US government agencies often acquire sensitive information about Americans from commercial marketplaces without the necessity of getting court warrants. The NSA director, Paul Nakasone, wrote to Wyden in a letter that stated that they were only purchasing Netflow data and information from electronic devices that are used in both domestic and international environments. 

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