All the “investigative” journalists jumped on this story when it originally broke a few months back. You could buy non-public information about ANYBODY on the Web — including police and FBI agents — often gathered illegally.

It turns out one of the biggest customers of these data brokers is — you guessed it — government. Surprise, surprise!

Federal and local police across the country — as well as some of the nation’s best-known companies — have been gathering Americans’ phone records from private data brokers without subpoenas or warrants.

These brokers, many of whom market aggressively across the Internet, have broken into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and sometimes acknowledged that their practices violate laws.

Those using data brokers include agencies of the Homeland Security and Justice departments — including the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service — and municipal police departments in California, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services.

Congressional investigators estimated the U.S. government spent $30 million last year buying personal data from private brokers. But that number likely understates the breadth of transactions, since brokers said they rarely charge law enforcement agencies.

“There’s a good chance there are some laws being broken, but it’s not really clear precisely which laws, said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Kentucky, head of the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee that plans to begin hearings Wednesday.

“They can basically obtain any information about anybody on any subject,” Whitfield said.

On the one hand, we have some states outlawing these practices — Congress starts hearings, today, on similar legislation — while at the same time local, state and federal agencies are paying these guys to fork over info that isn’t supposed to be public.