Seriously Risky Business Newsletter
June 15, 2023
IC Reform is Great, but Decent Privacy Laws Would Be Even Better
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Policy & Intelligence
An ODNI report into the US Intelligence Community's use of Commercially Available Information (CAI) has caused quite a stir, but most of the resulting press coverage has missed the forest for the trees.
It is a problem that the IC is using this information without any guiding policy. It is a much, much bigger problem that this information is being collected for sale in the first place.
The report examines how the IC is using CAI, what privacy and civil liberty protections cover its use, and makes recommendations about how this data should be used in the future. It defines CAI as information that can be bought by the public and excludes data that is commercially available only to governments.