NSA Buying Illegally Sourced Data on Americans Without Warrants

The National Security Agency (NSA) is buying Americans’ personal information without obtaining warrants, including data that was illegally obtained, according to newly revealed correspondence from the Department of Defense (DoD). The letters, exchanged between DoD officials and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), highlight how the Pentagon circumvents Americans’ constitutional protections by purchasing their private information on the open market. Mr. Wyden, who released the letters on Jan. 25, said that the DoD and NSA were propping up an industry that continuously engaged in illegal abuses of American citizens’ privacy. “Until recently, the data broker industry and the intelligence community’s purchase of data from these shady companies has existed in a legal gray area, which was in large part due to the secrecy surrounding the practice,” Mr. Wyden wrote in an open letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines....