Perhaps most controversially, the report states that the government believes it can “persistently” track the phones of “millions of Americans” without a warrant, so long as it pays for the information, a newly declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI, reveals. Were the government to simply demand access to a device’s location instead, it would be considered a Fourth Amendment “search” and would require a judge’s sign-off. But because companies are willing to sell the information—not only to the US government but to other companies as well—the government considers it “publicly available” and therefore asserts that it “can purchase it.”
Here’ tge report (pdf): https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ODNI-Declassified-Report-on-CAI-January2022.pdf
Well yes we’ve known about this for decades. It’s the entire point of Five Eyes afterall
AFAIK the point of the Five Eyes was to spy on allied countries citizens because they aren’t protected by your own laws, and then exchanging that information for the same infornation about your own citizens.
While i see the similarities, thats not the same as buying it from the commercial data sellers.