U.S. Government Shuts Down Key Spy Tech Procurement Database, Obscuring Surveillance Purchases

The U.S. government has shut down FPDS.gov, a critical public database that tracked the purchase of powerful surveillance and spying tools by federal agencies. The site, despite its dated appearance, served as an essential resource for journalists and researchers investigating government procurement of phone hacking technology, bulk location data, Palantir installations, and other intelligence-gathering systems. Its replacement, SAM.gov, features updated branding but is functionally inferior, making it significantly harder for the public to reliably monitor how agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are spending taxpayer money on surveillance capabilities. This change effectively reduces transparency around the acquisition of spy tech, limiting oversight of the tools used for domestic and international monitoring.