By Vanguard Staff
OAKLAND, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by a coalition of 17 attorneys general, is calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt federal agencies’ use of commercially purchased data and artificial intelligence tools that enable mass surveillance of Americans without judicial, legislative, or public oversight.
The coalition’s letter urges lawmakers to close what officials describe as a “data broker loophole,” which allows federal agencies to obtain sensitive personal information without a warrant by purchasing it from private companies.
“Every day, we give off a steady stream of data that broadcasts not only who we are, but where we go. This data is deeply personal, can identify your everyday habits and movements, and can be bought. Data brokers compile, package, and sell this information to various entities, typically without a consumer even knowing,” said Attorney General Bonta.
“California boasts the nation’s most robust privacy protection law to give consumers control over their data, but no such federal privacy framework exists, allowing the federal government potential access to this trove of data once it has been collected,” Bonta added.
“Allowing federal agencies to buy or compile, analyze, and use large profiles of information about Americans without limits, oversight, or accountability undermines the public’s faith in our system of governance and is dangerous for democracy. In light of federal assaults on immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, and on gender-affirming healthcare and abortion providers, I urge Congress to take action now and limit the ability of the federal government to deploy mass surveillance on Americans.”
According to the letter, federal agencies have increasingly relied on data brokers to acquire detailed information about Americans’ movements, associations, political activity and daily lives, information that would otherwise require a warrant or other legal process to obtain.
The attorneys general cite examples including the purchase of billions of airline ticketing records and mobile location data, which allow agencies to track individuals’ travel, routines and personal connections.
The letter states, “Allowing federal agencies, whether directly or through contractors, to compile, analyze, and use large caches of information about intimate aspects of daily life of every American without limits, oversight, or accountability undermines the public’s faith in our system of governance and is dangerous to our democratic institutions.”
Officials warn that advances in artificial intelligence have made it easier to analyze and re-identify data that is nominally anonymized, raising concerns about the scale and precision of surveillance capabilities.
The letter details how agencies including the FBI, DHS, and others have purchased or sought access to large commercial datasets, including airline travel records containing billions of entries and mobile location data collected through apps and digital platforms.
It also describes the use of tools that can track individuals’ movements or build detailed “daily life” profiles based on aggregated data points.
The attorneys general argue that such practices effectively circumvent constitutional protections and longstanding legal requirements governing government access to personal information.
They further warn that the data brokerage industry collects extensive personal information, including location data, health information, financial details, religious practices and political activity, often without consumers’ knowledge or meaningful consent.
The coalition notes that existing federal laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974, were not designed to address modern data collection and surveillance capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence and large-scale digital tracking.
“The wholesale collection of precise location data Americans for every minute and intimate details of Americans’ daily lives by the federal government is simply unreasonable,” the letter states.
The attorneys general are urging Congress to enact reforms that would prohibit federal agencies from purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant, require judicial authorization before accessing sensitive digital information, prevent the use of foreign intelligence authorities for domestic surveillance, and mandate the deletion of unlawfully collected data and related algorithms.
They also call for greater transparency and accountability for data brokers, including nationwide standards governing how personal data is collected, analyzed and sold.
“Congress must take action to stop federal agency efforts to procure, create, or implement mass domestic surveillance until we have controls in place,” the letter states.
In addition to California, the letter is signed by attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The coalition argues that, without federal action, the rapid expansion of data collection and artificial intelligence technologies will continue to outpace legal safeguards designed to protect privacy and civil liberties.
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