The State Department is giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies unrestricted access to personal data of more than 145 million Americans, through information from passport applications that is shared without legal process or any apparent oversight.
American government official and 71th U.S. Secretary of StateThe State Department is giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies unrestricted access to the personal data of more than 145 million Americans, through information from passport applications that is shared without legal process or any apparent oversight, according to a letter sent from Sen. Ron Wyden to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and obtained by Yahoo News.
“I write to express serious concern that the Department of State is providing law enforcement and intelligence agencies with unfettered access to personal data, originally collected through passport applications, of the more than 145 million Americans with a passport,” states the letter sent to Blinken, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News.Wyden, D-Ore., wrote that “the breadth of this access highlights the potential for other abuses.
It is unclear if the 25 law enforcement and intelligence agencies have different levels of access or how many people at these agencies have access to the full data set. In a meeting with Wyden in May, the State Department said they would be unable to break down the numbers by agency, only State Department and non-State Department, according to the letter.
. “Abuses of this access came to light through a report of investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Office of lnspector General into activities at Customs and Border Protection ,” the letter states.Wyden’s letter cites a public redacted version of the report because, despite years of repeated requests, DHS has still not provided him with the fully unredacted report.
“A CBP officer in a unit that was supposed to be looking into forced labor abuses inappropriately accessed the passport application of a U.S. journalist for purposes of ‘vetting’ the journalist. The search was intended to identify ‘additional selectors’ associated with the journalist as well as information on the journalist’s family members,” Wyden wrote.
The State Department did not respond to Yahoo News’ questions about Wyden’s letter and if it would come up with the plan his office requested.Civil liberties advocates told Yahoo News that they were also alarmed at the State Department providing personal data on Americans to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
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