Brickbat: Closely Tracked

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is investigating whether Customs and Border Protection's purchase of cellphone location data without warrants is improper. The agency has paid nearly half a million dollars to access a database compiled by a marketer that collects data from cellphone apps. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government must generally obtain a warrant to obtain such data from cellphone carriers, but Customs and Border Protection argues that because it is buying the information from a third party, not carriers, the decision does not apply.