What Does the Government Do with Americans' Data?
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government’s authority to collect, keep, and share information about Americans with little or no basis to suspect wrongdoing dramatically expanded. While the risks and benefits of this approach are the subject of intense debate, one thing is certain: it results in the accumulation of large amounts of innocuous information about law-abiding citizens. What do our intelligence and law enforcement agencies do with this data? In the search to find the needle, what happens to the rest of the haystack?
A new Brennan Center report undertakes an in-depth analysis of the federal government’s policies and practices for the use, retention, and sharing of non-criminal information across multiple types of data. The Brennan Center held a discussion in which experts considered the issues raised by these practices, including whether we need tighter controls on the government’s handling of Americans’ information. Featuring Laura Donohue (Georgetown University Law Center), Rachel Levinson-Waldman (Brennan Center for Justice), and Julian Sanchez (Cato Institute). Moderated by Julia Angwin (Wall Street Journal).
