FBI Conducted Millions of Data Searches Without A Warrant: Report

A new report suggested that the FBI searched through the data of Americans millions of times last year–all without a warrant.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “as many as 3.4 million searches” of data occurred. 

These searches were apparently conducted by the FBI without the need for warrants. The Foreign Intelligence Service Act governs foreign intelligence gathering under the pretext of national security. This controversial section of law was extended in 2018 and set to expire next.

“Officials said the FBI’s searches were vital to its mission to protect the U.S. from national-security threats,” The Journal reported. “The frequency of other forms of national-security surveillance detailed in the annual report generally fell year over year, in some cases continuing a multiyear trend.”

According to reports, more than half the searches were for Russian hackers.

“More than half of the reported searches—nearly two million—were related to an investigation into a national-security threat involving attempts by alleged Russian hackers to break into critical infrastructure in the U.S.,” the report said. “Those searches included efforts to identify and protect potential victims of the alleged Russian campaign…”

The JournalThe number of Americans who searched for their information does not always correspond with the amount of searches.

“An individual’s name, telephone number, email addresses and social security number can all be searched, sometimes repeatedly, and each instance of each term would count as a search. U.S. data searches can include information about U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, as well as companies. And searches can yield a mix of metadata and content of collected communications.”

Privacy experts were concerned by warrantless searches.

“For anyone outside the U.S. government, the astronomical number of FBI searches of Americans’ communications is either highly alarming or entirely meaningless,” Sen. Ron Wyden, a long-time advocate for personal privacy, said of the searches. “Somewhere in all that overcounting are real numbers of FBI searches, for content and for nonconsent—numbers that Congress and the American people need before Section 702 is reauthorized.”

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