Adtech Surveillance and Government Surveillance are Often the Same Surveillance

The article discusses the increasing overlap between corporate and government surveillance in the United States, primarily driven by the sale of personal data harvested from cell phone applications to data brokers who then sell it to advertisers or government agencies. Traditionally, the government would need a court order to access such data, but increasingly they are purchasing it directly from data brokers. This has raised concerns about privacy violations and the abuse of surveillance technologies by law enforcement officials for personal reasons. The article suggests that Congress should enact legislation banning the U.S. government from purchasing data it would otherwise need a warrant to acquire, as well as implementing comprehensive consumer data privacy laws to reduce the amount of personal information being harvested by companies in the first place.