Cybersecurity Policy Report, ATF’s Cancellation of Surveillance Contract Praised by Sen. Wyden, Rep. Cloud, (Jun 29, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Federal Trade Commission
The cancellation of a contract that would have enabled the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to track the location of individuals using ad-surveillance technology (adtech) was praised on Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Rep. Michael Cloud (R., Texas), who had expressed concern about ATF’s “warrantless” surveillance of Americans.
“Following bipartisan questioning by Wyden and Cloud’s offices, the ATF informed the lawmakers on June 18 that the agency’s director decided to terminate a contract with the data broker Penlink for its Webloc location data product, which scrapes users' locations from commercial advertising technology systems that target online ads at individual users, known as ‘adtech,’” the lawmakers said in a news release.
“Furthermore, the ATF has committed to reviewing all other vendor contracts to ensure they do not rely on adtech-sourced data,” they said.
After being questioned by Sen. Wyden and Rep. Cloud about its use of adtech surveillance tools, the ATF told the lawmakers it had used Webloc for 341 total searches but that the “legal fragility of the surveillance tool quickly became apparent when both the prosecutor and the judge expressed serious discomfort with the use of warrantless adtech data,” they said.
They persuaded ATF leadership that state laws and Federal Trade Commission rulings made the use of adtech surveillance legally questionable, they added.
“For years, I have warned that the government’s purchase of Americans’ location data from shady data brokers is an unacceptable end-run around the Fourth Amendment. After Representative Cloud and my staff informed the ATF about the legal and privacy quagmire surrounding adtech data, the agency did the right thing,” Sen. Wyden said.
“Canceling this contract is a victory for Americans' constitutional rights, but Americans’ privacy shouldn’t depend on ad hoc congressional interventions,” he said, noting that legislation he introduced, the Government Surveillance Reform Act would close what he called the “data broker loophole” (CPR, March 12).
“When we uncovered that the ATF was purchasing software to track Americans’ cell phone location data without a warrant, I knew that would not be the end of the conversation,” Rep. Cloud said. “I am thankful the bipartisan follow-up raised enough concern to result in the ATF canceling the contract. The Second and Fourth Amendments are not negotiable, and we will keep fighting to protect both.”
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