(Also see Hillary Clinton in 2008 Info Center Hub.)
Now, one promising approach suggested by thinkers on both sides of the political spectrum is the use of anonymization. That’s technology that protects the privacy of individuals while allowing the government to analyze data.
This technology would essentially erase the personal identification attached to information that is monitored, unless red flags are triggered.
But whatever our approach, we need to be as creative and imaginative in protecting Americans’ privacy as we are in protecting their security. And we need to abandon the idea that privacy and security are mutually exclusive.
You know, in our society, it is the people who have given their collective rights to the government to use only as necessary...
And you don’t have to go back many years to document abuses at the highest levels. I worked for the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate Investigation, and our committee found that the President had not only bugged the Democratic National Committee with former CIA operatives, but had also created enemies lists and manipulated IRS audits.
Without the right checks and balances, we found out just how quickly the unthinkable can be done by people whose power is unchecked.
UNCHECKED MASS SURVEILLANCE IS DANGEROUS
Now as there is a legitimate rush to step up our intelligence for real needs, let’s not forget all of the lessons we have learned over the past 220 years. What might seem sensible at the moment can be used unscrupulously in the future. Unchecked mass surveillance without judicial review may sometimes be legal but it is dangerous.
Every president should save those powers for limited, critical situations, and when it comes to a regular program of searching for information that touches the privacy of ordinary Americans, those programs need to be monitored and reviewed as set out by Congress in cooperation with the Judiciary...
So we don’t need to abandon our cherished rights. We don’t need more false debates – liberty versus security, privacy versus danger. What we need is to come together and develop a consensus about how to protect our privacy in a more data driven and dangerous world.
This issue is too important to be dealt with haphazardly. It is really too important to be ignored.
So let’s stand by a few cherished American ideals. Let’s think intelligently about how to apply what we now face in the new century within the framework of values that have stood the test of time.
We are, after all, a country built on individual liberty, including individual privacy, as well as collective safety and security...
And as we look at the rights of the people and the imperatives of the government, we need to see them from the same vantage point, not as competition but as all of seeking the kind of results that will make us a safer, freer people.
Our Constitution is fully up to the challenge of protecting our privacy and our security today. The real question is whether we are up to the challenge of enacting laws and implementing policies that honor it.
