Crummy article with very little detail written by a guy who is not a judge.
They are indiscriminately seizing private data, without warrants, without probable cause, without identifying the data to be seized, without naming the persons they target and without even any articulable suspicion -- the lowest bar needed in order to commence an investigation.
I have no interest in defending law enforcement or any government agency here ... but the author is flat-out misrepresenting one important point, and overlooks another one.
1. If the U.S. government is purchasing data from a commercial source that sells it to anyone, then it isn't seizing anything. It's gaining access to something that is already outside the personal control of its original sources.
2. There's a simple reason why the data purchased by the government can be acquired without a warrant: It no longer belongs to the person or people where it originated, so it isn't covered under the Fourth Amendment as "persons, houses, papers and effects.
Oh...I thought Big Sis was back.
Abolish the NSA,!
.