How the US government spies on us through gadgets

Anne Toomey McKenna, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Computational and Data Sciences and a cyberlaw expert, told the publication The Conversation about how consumer electronics and mobile apps can collect vast amounts of personal data without your knowledge.

On Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors' Ring cameras record your walk to the car. Sensors, cameras, and microphones in your car record your speed, driving style, route, who's with you, what you say, and biometrics like facial expression, weight, and heart rate. The car can also collect text messages and contacts from your connected smartphone.

Meanwhile, your phone is constantly recording your communications, health data, information about the apps you use, and tracking your location through cell towers, GPS satellites, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

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When you enter a store, its security cameras recognize your face and track your movements between aisles. If you then pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay, your phone records exactly what you bought and how much you paid.

All this data is quickly becoming a commercial commodity, bought and sold by data brokers. Collectively, after processing by artificial intelligence systems, it yields detailed information about you. This allows you to influence your behavior, specifically what you buy, feel, think, and do.

Companies unilaterally collect data on virtually all your activities. This "surveillance capitalism" is often unrelated to the services provided by device manufacturers, apps, or stores. For example, Tinder plans to use AI to analyze your entire photo gallery. And even if you opt out of data collection, that doesn't actually stop companies.

These companies can influence you, but they can't put you in jail. The US government can, and it's already purchasing vast amounts of information from commercial data brokers. The government can purchase Americans' personal data because such information isn't subject to the same restrictions as data collected directly by government agencies.

The federal government is expanding its direct data collection capabilities through partnerships with private tech companies. These surveillance technology alliances are strengthening both domestically and internationally, and advances in AI are taking surveillance to unprecedented levels.

"As a lawyer specializing in privacy, surveillance, and technology law, as well as an author and teacher, I've spent many years studying and analyzing the legal issues surrounding surveillance and data use," writes Anne Toomey McKenna. "To understand what's happening, it's important to understand how these technologies work, who collects what data about you, how it can be used against you, and why laws that seem designed to protect your information are either not enforced or ignored."

Large investments in AI and increasing data volumes

Congressional funding is dramatically scaling government investments in surveillance technology and AI-powered data analytics that automate the processing of massive amounts of information.

The sweeping 2025 Tax and Spending Act provided the Department of Homeland Security with an unprecedented $165 billion in annual funding. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the department, received about $86 billion.

Released documents, allegedly obtained from a Homeland Security hack, indicate the creation of a massive surveillance network covering all Americans.

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its AI surveillance capabilities through a sharp increase in contracts with private companies. It is reportedly funding automated surveillance technology at airports, devices that turn employees' phones into biometric scanners, and an AI platform that aggregates data from all 911 call centers to create geospatial maps and predict incidents. These predictions can be used in so-called predictive policing.

Furthermore, the department spent millions of dollars on AI-powered software capable of detecting users' moods and emotions based on their online posts. If you expressed online criticism of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies, social media companies—specifically Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram—could share your identifying information, such as your name, email, phone number, and activity, with the department.

Meanwhile, the National Artificial Intelligence Policy, unveiled by the Donald Trump administration on March 20, 2026, calls on Congress to use grants and tax incentives to expand the adoption of artificial intelligence in American industry and to allow businesses and academic institutions to use federal databases to train AI.

The use of such databases raises privacy concerns, as they contain information about a person's entire life—biographical data, employment information, tax information, and so on.

Blurred boundaries and weak control

In the realm of foreign intelligence, funding, development, and controlled use of some AI-based data collection technologies may be justified with proper oversight. The CIA's new procurement system, aimed at expanding cooperation with the private sector, may be legal with proper oversight. However, the line between legitimate national security and illegal domestic surveillance is becoming increasingly blurred, if not ignored altogether.

For example, the Pentagon designated Anthropic a national security threat because it insisted that its powerful AI model, Claude, not be used for mass surveillance of Americans domestically or to create fully autonomous weapons.

On March 18, 2026, FBI Director Cash Patel confirmed to Congress that the FBI was purchasing information about Americans from data brokers, including their travel history, to track citizens.

As the federal government accelerates the deployment of AI-based surveillance technologies and increases investment in them, the requirements for oversight of such technologies are weakening. In addition to the national AI policy, which constrains state-level regulation, the president has issued executive orders accelerating the deployment of artificial intelligence in federal agencies. However, the use of advanced AI systems is not without risks: there have been instances of such systems running amok, revealing sensitive data, and posing a threat even when performing routine tasks.

Your data

The system of surveillance capitalism requires people to involuntarily participate in a cycle of mutual and self-surveillance. Doorbell cameras, Flock license plate readers, and local social networks like Nextdoor create a collective database of people's movements in public spaces.

Sensors in phones and wearable devices like headphones and rings are collecting increasingly sensitive data. This includes health data such as heart rate and heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, sweating and stress indicators, behavioral patterns, neurological changes, and even brain waves. Smartphones are already being used to diagnose and assess Parkinson's disease, and headphones can be used to monitor brain function.

Such data is not covered by HIPAA, which prohibits healthcare organizations and their affiliates from disclosing medical information without the patient's consent, because technology companies are not considered healthcare organizations and such devices are not considered medical devices.

Legal protection

People have virtually no choice: when purchasing devices, using apps, or creating accounts, they are forced to agree to lengthy terms and conditions that stipulate the collection and sale of personal data. This "consent" results in the information entering a poorly regulated commercial data market.

The government claims it can legally acquire this data from brokers. However, by purchasing it in large quantities, it is effectively circumventing the Constitution, Supreme Court decisions, and federal laws designed to protect privacy from excessive government interference.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Supreme Court decisions require a warrant to access a telephone or use geolocation data to spy on a person. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act prohibits warrantless interception of wire, oral, and electronic communications.

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Despite some attempts, Congress has failed to pass laws that would effectively protect personal data, regulate the use of sensitive information by AI systems, or restore the original intent of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Courts, by accepting companies' arguments about user consent, have effectively weakened these regulations.

"I believe the way to begin addressing these issues is by restoring the Communications Interception Act and related regulations to their original purpose—to protect the privacy of Americans' communications—and for Congress to fulfill its promises by passing laws that will protect personal data and insulate people from the risks posed by AI," concludes Anne Toomey McKenna.

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