This week, the Center for Democracy & Technology issued a press release to applaud the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act's revival in the U.S. House of Representatives with a bipartisan group of cosponsor. The bill eliminates legal loophole that permits data brokers to provide law enforcement and intelligence organizations with Americans' personal information without being subject to court review.
“We don’t let police pay a phone company to install a wiretap instead of getting a warrant from a judge to place the wiretap. It’s long past time to close this loophole and stop police from buying their way around the warrant requirement for our sensitive location and browsing data,” Center for Democracy and Technology Deputy Director Jake Laperruque said.
According to a press release issued on July 18, 2023., the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with a bipartisan group of sponsors, and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) applauds this move.
The bill, which CDT has endorsed and which is scheduled to be discussed on Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee, would close a risky loophole that law enforcement uses to purchase private data that should require a warrant to obtain, such as cell phone location data and Internet browsing information. (For more information on how often this problematic practice occurs, read CDT's Legal Loopholes and Data for Dollars report).
Civil rights and civil liberties groups have historically been quite supportive of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. Several lawmakers, including Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, said that the data purchase loophole was a major issue that needed to be fixed last week at a hearing on FBI oversight held by the House Judiciary Committee.
The revival of the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act with bipartisan support is a significant step towards addressing the data purchase loophole. With the Center for Democracy & Technology's endorsement and the backing of civil rights groups, there is growing momentum to protect citizens' personal information from warrantless access by law enforcement agencies and intelligence organizations.
