If You Can't Subpoena It, Buy It

"Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers," AP reports today. This doesn't surprise me, because ex-GovExec staffer and current National Journal writer Shane Harris reported more than two years ago on how much data agencies were buying from private data aggregator ChoicePoint.