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Editorial: Privacy safeguards needed

A new Pentagon directive states the government can “inspect and seize data” on any government computer in the interest of information systems security.

That may seem reasonable, but it’s not. It’s actually a threat to privacy in three critical areas. Under long-standing U.S. legal tradition, all communication between lawyers and clients, doctors and patients, and clergy and followers is supposed to be protected from the government’s prying eyes.

The directive says data on government computers “are subject to routine monitoring, interception, and search” for purposes “including, but not limited to, penetration testing; COMSEC monitoring; network operations and defense; and personnel misconduct, law enforcement and counterintelligence investigations.”

Even though privileged data are supposed to remain protected, legal experts say once a computer or its data are in the hands of investigators, there is no way to know who might have access.

A defense attorney’s computer, for example, might be seized for one investigation, but reveal information, such as a defense strategy, for other cases, thereby undermining those defenses.

Without clear safeguards, the opportunity for abuse is almost boundless.

People give up many personal rights when they join the military. The right to due process, however, is not one of them — and attorney-client and doctor-patient privilege is a pillar of that process.

The Pentagon must show how it will guarantee that privilege or rescind this new directive.

SPEAK OUT: Invasion of privacy or matter of security?