this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's blurry. The Patriot Act, after the 9/11 terrosist attacks on the Twin Towers, established a lot of freedom for the US government to spy on its citizens. Lawmakers have been making necessary, holy-shit-we-are-courting-fascism corrections in scope ever since.

Depending on how the courts interpret the adjustments that have happened since the Patriot Act, it may or may not be illegal.

I suspect the legal challenge mostly relies on purchasing law. The US has lots of laws about how the government must act when buying something, in particular.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

This isn't spying, though. They purchased information that was perfectly legal to sell.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Thank you for the reply! I hadn’t consider the regulation around the government as the purchaser.