Oh, Good, Kash Patel’s FBI is Buying Location Data to Track Americans

No matter how bad you are at your job, you cannot possibly be worse than Kash Patel. A perfect seven days after the far-right podcaster turned FBI director announced he wants to use UFC fighters to train FBI agents (????!!!), this week he admitted—under oath—that the FBI is buying location data to track citizens, without any kind of warrant or subpoena. I’d say I’m surprised, but… this is the same guy who peddled the conspiracy theory that Democrats are a secret cabal of pedophiles drinking the blood of kids. 

The hearing, which was convened by the Senate Intelligence Committee and called “Worldwide Threats,” was conducted to ask Patel, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe about the state of U.S. security and about the ongoing war in Iran—an issue administration officials seem to all be on different pages about. 

That’s a big NO. Where are the “Don’s tread on me” 1st amendment folks? https://t.co/S5tjjM1142

— Marie Blanchard🇺🇲🦅 (@MMarieblanchard) March 18, 2026

During a point of questioning about intelligence, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.) asked Patel, “In 2023, your predecessor [Christopher Wray] testified that, and I quote, ‘To my knowledge, we do not currently purchase commercial database information that includes location data derived from internet advertising.’ Is that the case still? And if so, can you commit this morning to not buying Americans’ location data?”

“We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us,” Patel replied. 

“So you’re saying that the agency will buy Americans’ location data? I believe that that’s what you’ve said in kind of intelligence lingo,” Wyden replied, adding that without a warrant, such surveillance “is an outrageous end run around the fourth amendment.”

In less authoritarian times, to obtain citizens’ private data, the FBI would need to go through the legal parameters of getting a subpoena. Patel’s admission, however, indicates that the FBI is instead going through data brokers, or companies that buy, collect, and sell data points on Americans with little to no oversight. These companies can collect anything from an individual’s location to their name, gender, health, and political standing—and, yes, even someone’s menstrual cycle data.

Kash Patel refused to deny that the FBI is buying up Americans’ location data. This is a shocking end run around the 4th amendment and exactly why we need to pass real privacy reforms NOW.

[image or embed]

— Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) March 18, 2026 at 5:30 PM

Wyden emphasized that it is for this lack of oversight that he and three other lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill on Thursday, March 12, which proposes a revision to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and prohibits the federal government from buying data on Americans via data brokers. The House plans on figuring out its key provisions in Section 702 next week before it expires on April 20—though some Republicans might bungle the effort by trying to sneak the SAVE Act in as a provision, as a desperate method of getting the Senate to pass it.

During the hearing, Patel was also asked about his most recent spate of FBI firings, in which 10 officials who were revealed to have investigated documents at Mar-a-Lago about Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles during the Biden administration were subsequently dismissed. “It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records—along with those of [Wiles]—using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight.” I’ll say. But really, it just seems like there’s one person evading oversight here.

---