The National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted to buying records from data brokers detailing which websites and apps Americans use, US Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) revealed Thursday.

"The US government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans' privacy are not just unethical but illegal," Wyden said in a letter to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines.

To fix the problem, Wyden wants intelligence communities to agree to inventory and then "promptly" purge the data that they allegedly illegally collected on Americans without a warrant.

Wyden's spokesperson, Keith Chu, told Ars that "the data brokers selling Internet records to the government appear to engage in nearly identical conduct" to X-Mode.

That includes some commercially available information on Americans "where one side of the communications is a US Internet Protocol address and the other is located abroad," data which Nakasone said is "critical to protecting the US Defense Industrial Base" that sustains military weapons systems.

Rather than being a customer in this sketchy marketplace, intelligence agencies should stop funding companies allegedly guilty of what the FTC has described as "intrusive" and "unchecked" surveillance of Americans, Wyden said.

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