DEFENDING OUR DATA

We need a PUBLIC DEFENDERS office to PROTECT OUR DATA. A court does not work well unless there is experienced, vigorous, well researched argument for both sides. We already have a special court where the government subpoenas information. We just need to make that court work.

Even expert corporate attorneys can be outmatched by government attorneys. Corporate attorneys do not have the necessary background in criminal law and privacy law. If EVERY CASE was assigned a PUBLIC DATA DEFENDER, then even the small companies would have protection from government pressure.

Then we will need to set up an INTERNAL AFFAIRS office inside the NSA. Police officers are FIRED for accessing the police data base without proper investigative cause. NSA employees who casually give protected data to DEA agents, should also be fired. It may be necessary to protect the phone number data by putting it in a separate branch where data goes in, but data does NOT come out without the special court's order.

Emotions are running high over these issues. You should be aware that the NSA must go to a LOT of effort to listen to cell phone conversations. Mostly, the NSA just stores phone metadata. Metadata does NOT include the actual conversation. It is access to this metadata which should be defended by the PUBLIC DATA DEFENDER.

In order to reassure people, the first PUBLIC DATA DEFENDER should be a well respected civil rights attorney.