- US banks have been tracking their customers
- Mass surveillance campaign triggered by the events of 6 January
- The US government increases surveillance of its citizens
US banks have been tracking their customers
A new congressional report alleges that the Joe Biden administration worked with American banks to spy on Americans who support Donald Trump. The House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Arming of the Federal Government of the Department of Justice has issued just such a finding.
Major US financial institutions such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase and others have handed over customer data to the government. This data could include the location, date and description of financial transactions, allowing the government to build profiles of citizens, to monitor what they buy, when they buy it and what activities they engage in[1].
With this data, the FBI created an internal portal where agents could examine citizens' personal financial transactions and identify individual profiles of concern. In 2023, more than 14,000 federal employees reportedly accessed this internal portal, and 3.3 million transactions were conducted. There have been more than 3.3 million "warrantless searches".
Mass surveillance campaign triggered by the events of 6 January
The investigator, Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and Chairman of the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on Arming the Federal Government, first became aware of this financial surveillance in 2023, when an FBI whistleblower alerted him to the fact that, following the storming of the Capitol on 6 January, federal officials were using their influence to coerce the banks to give them access to their private transactions and their data.
Retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill told the Committee "that after the events of 6 January 2021, Bank of America (BOA) voluntarily provided the FBI, without legal process, with a list of the names of all individuals in the Washington, DC area who used a BOA credit or debit card at that time".
However, Bank of America customers were not the only ones monitored. The Republican-controlled commission investigated at least 13 financial institutions for collusion with the federal government.
The banks themselves justified themselves by explaining that they were looking for purchases that could be used to determine whether someone was an extremist. However, "extremism" has been equated with "MAGA" or "Trump" branded merchandise and even with the purchase of Bibles.
According to Peter Sullivan, a former FBI spokesman, federal agencies have given financial institutions 'thresholds' at which citizens should be monitored, but after the events of 6 January, the idea was proposed to banks to monitor even citizens' purchases at sports and leisure shops[2].
The US government increases surveillance of its citizens
The surveillance of US citizens is only increasing and is not even limited to the initiatives and activities of one party or another. In the spring, the US House of Representatives approved Article 702 of the controversial spying bill known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This means that the government can conduct surveillance of Americans' emails, text messages, and phone calls without any special warrant.
Article 702 allows the government to force companies like Google or Verizon to hand over citizens' personal information. A recent amendment to the bill approved by the House of Representatives significantly increased the scope of the law.
The Turner-Himes amendment, so named because of its sponsors, Representatives Mike Turner and Jim Himes, also allows federal law enforcement to compel any other service provider with access to communications equipment to hand over data. This means that anyone with access to a wireless server or even a phone could be obliged to help the government spy on them.
Not only does this clause allow the US government to monitor the communications of non-US citizens abroad without a warrant, but, as many civil liberties groups have pointed out, intelligence agencies, such as the FBI, are also using it as a tool for warrantless spying against Americans. According to the court ruling, the FBI abused its powers under this law at least 300,000 times in 2020 and 2021.
At the end of last year, in arguing for the reauthorization of Article 702, the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives, Turner, even hinted, in a closed-door briefing, that the law could be used to spy on Americans protesting against the war on Gaza.
It has previously been reported that the FBI has used Article 702 to investigate Black Lives Matter protesters, and the law has also been used to spy on American journalists, weakening their First Amendment right to report the news by undermining their ability to speak confidentially with foreign sources.
This contradicts the US Constitution because its Fourth Amendment requires a court-approved warrant for the government to obtain an American's communications. However, in recent years, it has become commonplace for intelligence agencies to use Article 702 as a loophole that allows them to monitor the communications of Americans and foreigners in the US without any warrant.
Indeed, the US is known for numerous mass surveillance and tracking cases, which have attracted a great deal of attention both domestically and internationally. For example, Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, revealed secret programs of mass surveillance by the US government. Working with technology companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, the NSA collected large amounts of data on people's emails, conversations, and others without their knowledge.
The Patriot Act was passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, extending the US government's right to collect information about citizens. It allowed the secret collection of data from financial records, libraries, internet histories, etc. It also increased the right to monitor suspects without a court order. Although the law has been justified on counter-terrorism grounds, it has often been criticized for mass surveillance that violates personal privacy.
The US government often uses social networks and data from technology companies. Both US authorities and private companies use GPS data from phones to track citizens' movements. "Stingray, a tracking technology used by US law enforcement, allows you to impersonate a mobile tower and collect data from nearby phones. It is used without court authorization.
In the US, law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) make extensive use of facial recognition technology, using data from driver's licenses, public videos, and even social networks. "Clearview AI, a technology company that has developed a powerful facial recognition tool, uses data from social networks. It has sold its technology to police and other government agencies. These situations illustrate the difficult balance between ensuring security and violating citizens' privacy in the US.
