Snowden has sparked a lively discussion about the complex trade-offs between American's right to privacy and protection from terrorists. This article in Huffington Post now points out that most people are upset that NSA is spying on us. Poll: NSA Oversight Is Inadequate, Most Americans Say: Andrew Bracevich wrote an editorial that asks the question: Are Snowden and Manning heroes or criminals?
However, I believe the problem could be much larger than just NSA. The current "flap" is about NSA listening in on international communications and accidentally picking up American citizens communications and metadata. However, FBI, DEA, Treasury Dept, IRS, Border Patrol, etc all have opportunities to gather similar data and make similar "mistakes." State and local agencies also have huge databases of metadata and opportunities to use it inappropriately. Sandag in San Diego has a database of all car license plates and their locations over the past two years. Freeway and bridge tolling companies know every vehicle that passed by. Telephone companies have all billing records. Credit card companies have records of everything we ever purchased. All of this information could be very valuable in catching or prosecuting bad guys. But it could also be abused.
I also believe that we won't be protected from abuse as long as oversight is only performed by a secret court, by secret judges, with secret results. I'm sure that if the Government intentionally or accidentally listened in on my telephone conversation, or read my e-mail, they would want that fact to be kept secret "forever." The agency would argue that it would not want it's espionage methods and procedures to be made public, because it could tip the hands of people with something to hide. However unless judges know that at some time in the future their decisions will be made public, they will not make balanced decisions.
The databases of metadata, and the new technologies are a treasure trove for law enforcement. It would be crazy to not be able to take advantage of them when fighting crime, whether it is terrorism or income tax evasion. On the other hand, we need to implement adequate checks & balances in the system to protect citizens from inappropriate violations of privacy.
The only way of doing that is to:
1. Establish a system that is clearly open, with accountable judges and staff who rotate frequently
2. Document public guidelines for use of these new technologies, and allow for "secret" guidelines that implement those public guidelines
3. Require declassification of collection and use of these data within reasonable timelines and allow FOIA requests for those data. For example, I should be able to find out if NSA intentionally or inadvertently listened to my phone call 5 years ago.
However, I believe the problem could be much larger than just NSA. The current "flap" is about NSA listening in on international communications and accidentally picking up American citizens communications and metadata. However, FBI, DEA, Treasury Dept, IRS, Border Patrol, etc all have opportunities to gather similar data and make similar "mistakes." State and local agencies also have huge databases of metadata and opportunities to use it inappropriately. Sandag in San Diego has a database of all car license plates and their locations over the past two years. Freeway and bridge tolling companies know every vehicle that passed by. Telephone companies have all billing records. Credit card companies have records of everything we ever purchased. All of this information could be very valuable in catching or prosecuting bad guys. But it could also be abused.
I also believe that we won't be protected from abuse as long as oversight is only performed by a secret court, by secret judges, with secret results. I'm sure that if the Government intentionally or accidentally listened in on my telephone conversation, or read my e-mail, they would want that fact to be kept secret "forever." The agency would argue that it would not want it's espionage methods and procedures to be made public, because it could tip the hands of people with something to hide. However unless judges know that at some time in the future their decisions will be made public, they will not make balanced decisions.
The databases of metadata, and the new technologies are a treasure trove for law enforcement. It would be crazy to not be able to take advantage of them when fighting crime, whether it is terrorism or income tax evasion. On the other hand, we need to implement adequate checks & balances in the system to protect citizens from inappropriate violations of privacy.
The only way of doing that is to:
1. Establish a system that is clearly open, with accountable judges and staff who rotate frequently
2. Document public guidelines for use of these new technologies, and allow for "secret" guidelines that implement those public guidelines
3. Require declassification of collection and use of these data within reasonable timelines and allow FOIA requests for those data. For example, I should be able to find out if NSA intentionally or inadvertently listened to my phone call 5 years ago.
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