Foreign policy & defense
government surveillance
Government monitoring of communications, location, and records. Governed by a patchwork of the Fourth Amendment, FISA, and the wiretap and stored communications statutes.
In full
Different rules apply depending on whether the target is a U.S. person, whether the purpose is criminal or foreign intelligence, and whether the data is content or metadata. Carpenter v. United States (2018) required a warrant for historical cell location records, but much data purchased from commercial brokers falls outside these frameworks entirely.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.