All The Spies Couldn’t See Your Bank Info Before, Legally, But Now They Can, Legally

Cool news from Reuters:

Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of “suspicious customer activity,” such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to FinCEN.

The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.

You got that? So: Your bank is already all up on your business so they can report it to the government. And the FBI is all up on those reports. And the CIA and NSA have been able to be all up on some of those reports on a record by record basis, but now they’ll be all up on all of it whenever they want..

I hope none of us think we have any secrets because we don’t have any secrets which is just such a weird thing to write. Do you think Hollywood is in cahoots on this? Making movies about how the government knows everything about you even back when the government didn’t know everything about you? You know, to normalize the government knowing everything about you? So that now, with each new law that allows them to know more and more about you, we’re just like, “Oh, you didn’t already know that? I thought you already knew that.”

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.