Big brother knows all, right? Government agencies keep sensitive information on all of us - social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates. Even the way, your tax return ends up safely in your checking account is mysterious. But this doesn't worry us on a daily basis because the government keeps this information under lock and key, secure on those trusty hard drives of theirs. But what happens when those outdated computers are sold? General protocol is wiping the hard drive clean. But that doesn't always happen.
An article in today's New York Times described how New Jersey nearly sold confidential data from old computers in departments such as the judiciary branch, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health and Senior Services, and the Office of Administrative Law. Some glitch or general bureaucratic laziness allowed the hard drives to slip by to be auctioned, still filled with sensitive data. Only an investigation by the comptroller prevented this from happening.
I found this to be an interesting contrast with the discussions we've been having in class about preventing the press from printing something that might be an issue of national security. So far the press has won, as with the Pentagon Papers, but the issues continually arise. And when they do arise, the politicians fight hand and foot to prevent the information from being printed. Yet, a situation like New Jersey's can still happen, that confidential information can be almost accidentally auctioned making the government responsible for the identity theft of thousands of New Jersey residents.
Does this make it seem like certain politicians when evoking the phrase, "national security" are really just trying to save their own hides? While the information being disclosed is not war secrets, isn't the revelation of this information still a major issue of security?
America is an interesting place. On the one hand, we think that since the country is a proper democracy (although it isnt actually one), that we have the right to privacy. On the other hand, since we're a country with freedom of the press, we think that we should be able to publish any information that we stumble upon.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, at what point is it actually an issue of national security and at what point is it politicians trying to save themselves from their mistakes leading to public embarrassment? It seems like a VERY fine line to me. You bring up some really interesting points about "the state of our union" so to speak.