17 State AGs Demand Limits on Federal Data Buying

The coalition wants warrants for sensitive digital records and new limits on government purchases from data brokers.

State of Surveillance Editorial Team

Lady Justice statue holding scales, representing legal accountability and state attorney general authority
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TL;DR:

  • Seventeen state attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sent Congress a letter about federal purchases of sensitive data.[1]
  • The letter asks for warrants before agencies access web browsing activity, search queries, and location information.[1]
  • It also asks Congress to close the data broker loophole and require deletion of unlawfully collected data and algorithms trained on it.[1]
  • The signatories include attorneys general from 17 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington.[1]

The Loophole Is the Point

The coalition's complaint is simple: federal agencies can sometimes buy sensitive information from commercial data brokers instead of asking a court for it.

California's attorney general says the letter points to data about pages visited, purchases, locations, health, behavior, associations, and political activity. It also cites federal purchases of billions of airline ticketing records and mobile location data.[1]

The Brennan Center describes the mechanism as a gap in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The law restricts phone and internet companies from selling customer data to the government, but does not cover every digital data broker. That can let data move through a middleman.[2]

What the AGs Want

  1. Block purchases that would require a warrant. Agencies should not be able to buy sensitive data when they would need judicial approval to obtain it directly.[1]
  2. Require warrants for digital records. The letter specifically names browsing activity, search queries, and location information.[1]
  3. Stop foreign-intelligence workarounds. The coalition wants limits on using foreign surveillance authorities or third-party vendors to evade domestic rules.[1]
  4. Delete unlawfully collected data and models trained on it. That demand covers both the records and algorithms built from them.[1]
  5. Set national transparency standards for data brokers. The letter says people should know more about how brokers sell information to the government.[1]

The Coalition

The California DOJ lists 17 signatories: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.[1]

The letter went to the leadership of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.[1]

The Bills Already on the Table

The Brennan Center identifies several proposals that would restrict government purchases of sensitive data. It says the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act would cover geolocation information, certain communications-related information, and data obtained through illegitimate scraping practices.[2]

The center also says the proposals preserve emergency exceptions and allow agencies to obtain data through a warrant, court order, or subpoena. That is a narrower claim than a blanket ban on government data access.[2]

Bonta Has Made the Same Argument Elsewhere

In an October 2025 California DOJ release, Bonta described a separate fight over a federal demand for personal information about millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. The release said a federal court issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the demand.[3]

That case and the letter involve different data systems. The common thread is Bonta's argument that sensitive records should not become government surveillance material merely because an agency can obtain them from another channel.

The Bottom Line

The AGs are not asking Congress to stop every government investigation. They are asking lawmakers to apply the same basic rule to data brokers that already applies to some direct requests: if the information is sensitive, an agency should have to justify the search to a judge.

Whether Congress acts is unresolved. The letter puts the demand on the record. The Brennan Center's summary shows that several bills would give lawmakers a legislative route to close the gap.[1][2]

Sources

  1. California Department of Justice: Bonta Calls on Congress to Stop Government Mass Surveillance of Americans (March 24, 2026)
  2. Brennan Center for Justice: Congress Must Close the Data Broker Loophole (March 17, 2026)
  3. California Department of Justice: Court Blocks Data Grab in SNAP Surveillance Case (October 15, 2025)

Published: March 25, 2026