Getting Around the Fourth Amendment

by

       George Sontag

      The Biden administration is using private firms to track the online activity of American citizens in order to get around the Fourth Amendment and other laws that protect Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures and surveillance.

      It's illegal for government agencies to directly surveil Americans under the Fourth Amendment without a warrant. Furthermore, the US Supreme Court asserted in 2018 that it was also illegal for law enforcement to access cellphone location data without a court order. The DoD's spy agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has adopted the position that those rules don't apply to commercial data "that the government buys." That is quite a "legal theory." 

      This “legal theory” being discussed inside DHS, according to multiple sources, would, in effect, allow the them to circumvent” restrictions the U.S. government has to surveil American citizens. “A source familiar with the effort said it is not about decrypting data but rather using outside entities who can legally access these private groups to gather large amounts of information that could help DHS identify key narratives as they emerge. However, it's still a legal grey area as to where data purchases would fall in such rules and if getting around the Constitution is even legal. We do not believe it is.

      Whenever you are on-line or on your mobile phone entities such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, and even the apps we install on our phones, they copy and record everything you say and do. All of these companies are tracking us constantly, collecting much more data than most people realize, and then selling it through “data brokers” to the federal government or to any entity that wants it, without a warrant being obtained Then they sell this information to any entity that wants it. This is why you should at least use a VPN and encrypt when using communications.

      The report says that the Biden administration wants to monitor “extremist chatter by Americans online” but can’t do so without a warrant, and thinks private firms can get around the legal restrictions. Federal authorities “can only browse through unprotected information on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and other open online platforms,” by law. Yet, the Pentagon is using bought commercial data to track Americans without due legal process following reports in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. In addition, various US law enforcement agencies have been purchasing electronic cellphone and other location data from apps installed on Americans' phones to track alleged terrorists, illegal immigrants and other groups.

      This is UN-Constitutional, not only that, it doomed to failure, why? Because by the time narratives are appearing on Facebook, it is usually too late, one DHS official stated. “Domestic violent extremists are really adaptive and innovative. We see them not only moving to encrypted platforms, but obviously couching their language so they don’t trigger any kind of red flag on any platforms,” the official added. Therefore, not only is this Un-Constitutional, it is Un-neccessary.

      Criticism of the plan didn’t just come from the right. Former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright, a Democrat, called the plan “monstrous.” Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows blasted the plan. “They spied on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and skated by with no consequences,” he tweeted. “And now they want to spy on you too. This is a chilling, terrible idea that should be roundly rejected.”

       To put a stop to this Third Reich tactic comes The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act” (S. 1265) was introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY), and it should get support on both sides of the aisle. Rand and Wyden, along with eighteen other senators, are now trying to ban that practice completely and close the “made-up” loophole that government spies have used to thwart our right to privacy at every turn. This would mean agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI would actually have to present evidence before they could spy on you.

       This could not come at a better time as the Deep State and government authoritarians are attempting to further crack down and target innocent Americans on what we say and do online. They’re trying to turn us into a society where you can be targeted by domestic spies just for hurting the feelings of a major corporation online. Welcome to Democratic Corporate Socialism, the new US, unless we rise up and put a stop to it and soon.