Invested in the U.S. Stock Market? A New Lawsuit Alleges a Government Agency May Have Illegally Collected and Stored Your Data

A caller suit alleges that nan U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been illegally search nan information of Americans who person invested successful nan banal market.

The lawsuit, revenge by nan New Civil Liberties Alliance last week successful Texas, claims that nan agency has been illegally collecting information done nan "Consolidated Audit Trail" programme (CAT), and that nan programme is unconstitutional.

The SEC is accused of storing and search information that involves "trade accusation connected each investor's trades from inception to completion," which they declare violates nan Fourth Amendment.

Related: What nan SEC's New Climate Transparency Rules Mean for You

"By seizing each financial information from each Americans who waste and acquisition successful nan American exchanges, SEC arrogates surveillance powers and appropriates billions of dollars without a shred of Congressional authority — each while putting Americans' savings and investments astatine sedate and perpetual risk," Peggy Little, NCLA elder litigation counsel told Fox News. "The Founders provided rock-solid protections successful our Constitution to forestall conscionable these autocratic and vulnerable actions. This CAT must beryllium ripped out, guidelines and branch."

Related: SEC hits finance advisors for usurpation of trading rules

According to Barron's, nan CAT programme is simply a trade-reporting audit strategy approved successful 2016 that allows nan SEC and nan banal speech to "trace each bid for a nationally-traded banal from origination done modifications, routing, and execution."

The astir caller fund support from nan authorities for nan CAT programme was $200 million.

The people action suit alleges "modern surveillance devices alteration wide search of individuals' each move" and nan SEC tin do truthful without allocating further clip aliases resources to cod nan desired data.

"Powerful machine algorithms tin process that accusation to uncover individual and backstage specifications of each person's financial life aliases finance strategy," the suit says, per Bloomberg.