Demand Progress

Washington, DC — On Tuesday, a joint investigation by WIRED, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) and Netzpolitik.org revealed that online data brokers are selling detailed location data on U.S. military and intelligence personnel overseas. The story also revealed that the Federal Trade Commission is preparing to file multiple lawsuits that will formally recognize U.S. military bases as protected sites. 

Demand Progress has led a coalition of civil liberties groups pushing the government to protect Americans’ privacy rights from unregulated data brokers. These efforts include supporting the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, a bill that would prevent the government from purchasing data on Americans without a warrant, which hundreds of organizations have endorsed and which passed the House in April. The following is a statement from Demand Progress Policy Director Sean Vitka:

“Right now, unregulated data brokers could be selling detailed location information about military personnel working at nuclear sites to foreign governments and hackers without consequence. This is a serious, immediate threat to our national security and to our privacy. Yet congressional leaders keep shirking their duty to take action, siding instead with foreign data broker giants. We must ask: is the data broker industry really worth more to them than the American people?”