AB-667/ SB-679: 4th Amendment Is Not For Sale Act

Normally, if law enforcement officers want to access your personal data, they need a warrant. A glaring loophole currently exists in the Fourth Amendment’s privacy protections that allows government entities, including law enforcement, to buy a person’s private data instead of securing a judicial warrant. The government can (and often does) purchase the personal data of American citizens from unregulated brokers who offer it up to the highest bidder, all without any court oversight. This is the equivalent of police bypassing the requirement to get a warrant to search someone’s apartment by simply handing their landlord an envelope of cash.

A bi-partisan bill to prevent such data purchases, known as the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FAINFSA), was introduced in Congress several times and, most recently in 2024, passed the House before failing in the Senate. A state-level version of this law was adopted in Montana in 2025, with unanimous support.

This bill prohibits law enforcement from circumventing Fourth Amendment warrant requirements – including its probable cause, individualized suspicion, and judicial oversight standards – by purchasing an individual’s private, personal data from data brokers and other data collectors.