DPI Submits Comments to OMB on Data Collection and Fourth Amendment Concerns

December 16, 2024–Due Process Institute, Brennan Center for Justice, and a host of civil liberties organizations submitted comments in response to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s request for information on executive branch agency handling of Commercially Available Information (CAI) containing personally identifiable information. The comment highlighted one dangerous aspect of agency handling of CAI that demands OMB’s attention: law enforcement and intelligence agencies’ access to and use of CAI in ways that evade legal requirements set forth in the Fourth Amendment and various privacy laws enacted by Congress. Furthermore, the comments discuss the Fourth Amendment doctrines and statutes that restrict the government surveillance at issue here, how the government is using CAI to circumvent those rules, the harms of this circumvention, and recommendations that OMB should implement to regulate these practices.