"Unless your data is fully encrypted or stored locally by you, the government often can get it from a communications or computing company.
Traditionally, that required a court order. But increasingly, the government just buys it from data brokers who bought it from the adtech industry."
“this corporate-government surveillance partnership has mostly evaded judicial review.”
“Police can also track people whose devices have been inside an immigration attorney’s office, a reproductive health clinic, or a mental health facility”
“The Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act is bipartisan, commonsense law that would ban the U.S. government from purchasing data it would otherwise need a warrant to acquire. Moreover, with the invasive surveillance law Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act set to expire in December 2023, Congress has a chance to include a databroker limits in any bill that seeks to renew it.”
Data brokers from adtech should straight up be 100% illegal and should be considered stalking.
If a stranger does it just because, then it’s a crime. If they sell the information, they become a government contractor.
They should be considered a crime against national and individual security, as well as democracy.
Nation states use it for intelligence and psychological warfare operations, and could use it to plan and conduct attacks of both traditional and cyber warfare.
Criminals use it to commit financial crimes on individuals and orgs.