A PRISM Solution
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
(I originally wrote this on November 15, 2014, as an open letter addressed to Elizabeth Warren. Now I’m binge-watching Newsroom and finding that show eerily relevant to today’s political nightmares. It has also motivated me to be a Greater Fool, like McEvoy in the series. Hence, I’m resurrecting this idea in hopes that now it might get traction and lead to important changes. If you like this idea, please spread the word.)
Dear Senator,
Please consider filing a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act for release to you of any information about you that has been collected and stored as part of the PRISM program.
The entire database is a matter of national security, but your small piece of it is not. The information you would be seeking is for your use alone. Moreover, release of that information to you is not a breach of your privacy.
You should file such a law suit:
1) to determine what is in fact being collected, so you can make appropriate judgments in your oversight role as senator; and
2) to set a precedent for personal access to PRISM data.
At this point it is impossible to do away with PRISM. But the data so gathered might prove useful to innocent people whose privacy rights have been violated.
Individuals should periodically be given access their own information:
1) as a way to verify that the information is correct, rather than a result of mistaken identity or misinterpretation (comparable to access to one’s own credit reports);
2) as a tool in uncovering and addressing instances of identity theft;
3) as a source of evidence for defendants to establish facts and state of mind in criminal and civil trials;
4) as a source of raw data for input in personal profile software, so individuals could build a predictive model of themselves in order to better understand their own preferences and behavior patterns, get a better idea of who they are, and have better control over their own lives.
If individuals had that kind of access to their own data, they could come to see such data collection as having positive benefits that, in part, counterbalance the loss of privacy.
P.S. It is high time that Snowden be pardoned, compensated for the misery he been subject to, and awarded a medal of honor.)
