

Wikileaks: Security vendors help governments spy on their citizens - jfruh
http://www.itworld.com/security/229897/security-vendors-help-covert-agencies-spy-their-own-citizend-wikileaks

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guimarin
The thing that bothers me most about gov't using outside contractors for
Security, Analysis, and Intelligence is not the incompetence of many of these
companies or the degree to which our rights get trampled by them. It is that
these companies do not have to comply with FOIA requirements like their
respective government agencies. If the FBI outsources information gathering,
and they do in some instances, then there is no way for me to issue a
satisfactorily executed FOIA request. They can just say, I'm sorry but the
data you're looking for is owned by a private company and disclosing such data
amounts to trade-secret disclosure. Ergo, there is no way for me to ever see
what my file may or may not look like. I am also very bothered by the further
implication of this, which is that if there is a breach of security and
subsequent public disclosure at one of these contractors the agency in
question can simply wash their hands of the matter, despite having given the
previous authority and legal protection for such information gathering to have
taken place in the first.

