By news@appleinsider.com (Amber Neely) US intelligence and defense organizations are perhaps operating outside mandates to spy on American citizens by buying a wealth of personal data harvested from smartphones through brokers, and a senator wants the practice stopped.The U.S. government is a key customer of data brokersSenator Ron Wyden says in a letter that, thanks to a “legal gray area,” US intelligence and the Department of Defense can purchase bulk data about U.S. citizens without their consent. He wants the practice stopped, and the data deleted.Typically, if a government security agency wants to obtain data about a user’s internet activity, they would need to petition developers and internet service providers with a warrant. However, they can avoid issuing warrants by purchasing data from data brokers. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Source:: Apple Insider