Three Democratic lawmakers are raising alarms that regulations designed to protect Americans' location data from foreign adversaries contain significant gaps, leaving key government facilities including the White House, Congress and CIA headquarters unprotected.
The Biden administration spent nearly a year developing rules blocking U.S. adversaries from purchasing commercial cell phone location data at sensitive federal sites. The regulations took effect in April 2025, targeting sales to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. However, an analysis by the lawmakers' staff identified that 736 designated protected locations excluded several of the nation's most sensitive facilities.
What the Left Is Saying
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Rep. Sara Jacobs of California sent a letter to Trump administration officials warning that the gaps pose national security risks. 'The sale of Americans' location data by data brokers poses a serious threat to U.S. national security, particularly when data about U.S. government employees is sold to foreign governments,' the lawmakers wrote. 'Such data can be exploited for espionage purposes.'
The three Democrats called on the administration to create a comprehensive 'protection zone' covering the entire Washington, D.C. region rather than relying on a list of individual buildings. They also urged expansion of the list of countries barred from acquiring American location data.
Wyden's office worked with the Congressional Research Service to analyze the GPS coordinates used to define protected sites under the regulations, identifying which facilities were included and which had been omitted.
What the Right Is Saying
Republican lawmakers have generally supported efforts to address national security threats posed by commercial data sales but have raised questions about implementation. Some conservative critics have questioned whether sweeping geographic protections could overreach into areas with significant private property and civilian traffic.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the lawmakers' letter. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.
Administration officials have indicated they are reviewing existing regulations and considering adjustments, though no formal response to the Democrats' specific proposals had been issued as of publication.
What the Numbers Show
The rules identify 736 sensitive locations where even single-device location data cannot be sold to designated adversary nations. The original regulations banned selling location data on more than 1,000 American devices to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. Concerns that foreign governments might circumvent these thresholds by purchasing smaller datasets led officials to designate specific high-sensitivity sites with stricter individual-device protections.
Commercially available location data has been used to identify sensitive U.S. facilities in documented instances. A French aircraft carrier recently revealed its position in the Mediterranean when a crew member logged a running route on the ship's deck through a fitness application, according to reported accounts of the incident.
The Bottom Line
The letter represents an early test of how the Trump administration will handle national security concerns inherited from Biden-era regulations. Wyden, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has long championed data privacy legislation and previously exposed surveillance practices involving commercial location information. His involvement signals continued congressional attention to the issue regardless of White House composition.
Data brokers routinely sell location information to help companies target advertising, analyze consumer habits and assess investment opportunities. Governments have increasingly turned to such datasets for law enforcement and intelligence purposes. Foreign spy agencies can use commercially purchased data to map patterns and activities of U.S. government personnel at sensitive locations.