# Purchased data as a warrant workaround > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Purchased data as a warrant workaround," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/purchased-data-warrant-workaround/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's account of U.S. federal agencies buying Americans' personal data from social-media platforms and data brokers rather than seeking a warrant — a practice he describes as an ethical and legal problem likely to reach the Supreme Court, and one in which no judge is aware a case is being built.* - **Agencies named:** FBI, NSA - **Sellers named:** X, Meta, and other platforms; publishers reselling reader data - **Effect (per Kiriakou):** A case can be built with no warrant, no notice to the subject, and no judge aware of it - **Kiriakou's forecast:** Likely to end up at the Supreme Court [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) describes a practice by which U.S. federal agencies obtain data on Americans without the warrant that would ordinarily be required. Rather than ask a court for authority to collect information on a U.S. person — a citizen or green-card holder — the [FBI](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fbi) and the [NSA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/national-security-agency) *"just go to X and Meta and all these other platforms and they just buy the data. That's it."*[1] The consequence he draws is procedural rather than merely technical: *"so they can build a case against you. You don't have any idea that they're doing it, you haven't done anything wrong, and more importantly no judge has any idea that they're doing this."* He frames the practice as simultaneously an ethical problem and a legal one, and expects it to end up at the Supreme Court.[1] ## The supply chain Kiriakou traces the chain back to ordinary reading. Clicking through to an article deposits cookies that continue to follow the reader, and the publisher sells that data to another company, which resells it to advertisers *"and really anybody who wants to pay the money for it including the FBI, the CIA and the NSA."*[2] The profile that results can be assembled from searches a person would not expect to be read back to them — *"abortion clinics nearby, or psychiatrists, or you're looking for information on your ex-wife"* — and Kiriakou notes that law enforcement can build such a profile whether or not it is accurate, and use it either way.[3] ## "Nothing to hide" Kiriakou has a standing answer to the objection that the innocent have nothing to fear. He says the first person to pose the question in a public venue was Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister — *"if you have nothing to hide then why are you worried about what the government is collecting on you"* — and gives his own reply: *"I worry a lot, because it's none of the government's damn business what I do on the internet."*[4] ## See also - [Mass Surveillance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mass-surveillance) - [NSA Surveillance](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/nsa-surveillance) - [Bluffdale NSA Data Center](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bluffdale-nsa-facility) - [WLDragnet](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/wldragnet) - [Panquake](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/panquake) ## Sources 1. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 24:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=1494s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 2. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 23:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=1398s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 3. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 29:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=1745s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 4. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 25:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=1524s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/purchased-data-warrant-workaround/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt