Three years after saying it had stopped buying location data of Americans without a warrant, the FBI acknowledged it has restarted the purchases. During questioning at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing yesterday, FBI Director Kash Patel said the location data purchases have produced valuable information, and he did not commit to stopping the practice. In March 2023, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the agency had previously bought location data of US citizens without obtaining a warrant. “To my knowledge, we do not currently purchase commercial database information that includes location data derived from Internet advertising,” Wray, who led the agency during Trump’s first term and during the Biden era, said at the time. “I understand that we previously—as in the past—purchased some such information for a specific national security pilot project. But that’s not been active for some time.” At yesterday’s hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recounted Wray’s 2023 statement and asked Patel, “Is that the case still and, if so, can you commit this morning to not buying Americans’ location data?” Patel answered, “The FBI uses all tools to do our mission. We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us.” Wyden replied, “So you’re saying that the agency will buy Americans’ location data. I believe that that’s what you’ve said in kind of intelligence lingo, and I just want to say as we start this debate, doing that without a warrant is an outrageous end-run around the 4th Amendment. It’s particularly dangerous given the use of artificial intelligence to comb through massive amounts of private information.”