You know how we only
blame Mark Zuckerberg for all our problems? Well, we have marked yet another
culprit who’s been stealing our data: the US government!

We’ve received confirmation
that the US government has access to our location, all thanks to the data
collected from the citizens’ smartphones.

The New York Times has gained access
to the memo that was originally sent to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), in which the
Defense Intelligence has admitted that it buys data from the brokers! The memo
further confirmed out doubts and said that the data isn’t separated and it
doesn’t matter if the person lives in the US or anywhere else.

Data brokers are
essentially companies that have a business of collecting and selling people’s
information. These companies are responsible for extracting the location of the
users, and they do so by paying the app makers and websites.

After gaining
access to this information, the broker sells it to whoever is willing to make a
bargain – this includes the government.

According to the meme,
information can only be retrieved if the user grants permission to access their
location. Furthermore, the person can only question the US location database if
they are properly authorized and have gone through a formal process.

This means
that they have to seek approval of the senior management, the Office of
Oversight and the Compliance.

For the last two and
half years, DIA has had the opportunity to review the US device location for a
total of five times. 

But here’s the thing –
according to the fourth amendment, the government has to get a warrant to gain
data from third parties like a phone company. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to
claim that this rule is upheld by the Supreme Court’s decision.

Of course, DIA
continues to argue and claims that these rulings don’t apply to them, as they
retrieve data from the brokers and those agencies aren’t breaking any laws.

Moreover, the memo
applies that the agency doesn’t misconstrue the Carpenter’s decision. It says
that the agency “does not construe the
Carpenter decision to require a judicial warrant endorsing purchase or use of
commercially available data for intelligence purposes.”

The American Civil
Liberties Union has dismissed these statements. In an official statement,
theAshley Gorski, who is the senior staff attorney, has said that “the government cannot simply buy our private
data in order to bypass bedrock constitutional protections,” and called on
Congress to “end this lawless practice and require the government to get a
warrant for our location data, regardless of its source.”

They’re not wrong, you
see! Don’t you feel suffocated by just being conscious that you’re being
watched all the time? And it must be worse for marginalized individuals and
communities.

And to claim that these
practices are legal and justified? Does the DIA feel that it’s above the law?

For quite some time,
we’ve all been aware that the government agencies have used our data, something
that they obtained from the brokers. They can easily retrieve location
information from the users of smartphones. But the legislators are trying to
work out a procedure to fill this loophole.

Sen. Wyden has actually
requested for the meme to be made and titled“The Fourth Amendment if Not For
Sale” dedicated to ban the government has put from accessing this information
without getting a warrant from the court.

Do you feel secure in
America today as a privileged White person, or are you afraid of your
whereabouts like the rest of the marginalized crowds? 

Like our page on
Facebook to let us know how you feel about this arrangement the government has
with the so-called brokers and more about the US Defense Intelligence Agency!

Were
you aware that the US citizen’s location data was being collected through smartphones?
We bet the fact that The Defense Intelligence Agency was buying location data
through citizens’ smartphones.