A Republican congressman last week highlighted an oft-overlooked threat to the privacy of all Americans: The federal government's practice of purchasing citizens' private market data (PMD) from data brokers without a warrant. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R–N.D.) raised the issue at the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government's inaugural hearing. "The federal government has realized the value of the massive amounts of commercial consumer data that is freely available on the open market," Armstrong said. "Combine [the amount of data available] with the advance in technology like [artificial intelligence], facial recognition, and more, that will allow aggregation, analysis, and identification, and we are fast approaching a surveillance state with no assurances other than the promises of our government that it will not abuse this tremendous responsibility."
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