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| VOLUME 10 JANUARY 2024 A Publication of Local Umbrella Media
Your Digital Data And Who Really Owns It Is There Such A Thing As Privacy Anymore?
By Bob Morey With John Horst
On a recent episode of the Dan Bongino Show, Senator Mike Lee R (UT), spoke about the deep intrusions of Big Tech and social media into our lives and privacy and how the data they collect about us is used. I listened with rampant attention as I had just finished reading my good friend, John Horst, latest book titled ‘Liberty’s Silver Bullet (LSB), which also touches on those very topics that Senator Lee was speaking about but goes further by calling for a Digital Constitutional Amendment to protect our personal data and digital finances. LSB also delves into the critical areas we face in the ever-increasing digital world, not just data and money but also Artificial Intelligence and the Crypto Economy. John Horst and his wife own Xanesti Technology Services, LLC. Their company supports DoD cybersecurity, and Mr. Horst serves as an expert witness and consultant on cases involving cybersecurity and related disciplines. I had a chance to sit down with Mr. Horst and talk at length about some of the critical decisions that we will have to address in the near future. LUM: What led you to write Liberty’s Silver Bullet? Mr. Horst: I first ran for Congress in 2016 for very local reasons. It really started with something as simple as a stop sign and crosswalk in our neighborhood after a young woman and her niece were struck by a car as they walked to school. In campaigning for that stop sign and crosswalk, I learned about a local group of volunteers who helped the city understand the things our neighbors were most concerned about. With their help, I was able to get the stop sign and crosswalk our community needed. I joined that group of volunteers and learned about another problem. Our community was short on elementary schools. One was planned and funded, but the federal bureaucracy was getting in the way. I rallied that same group to engage with our congressman about the school. Our congressman then was Brian Bilbray, who longtime San Diego residents might remember as mayor of Imperial Beach. He was tired of his beaches being closed due to sewage from Tijuana. He was even more tired of the impotence of government. He took to a skip loader to dam up the Tijuana River and triggered an international incident. Brian knew how to get the attention of the people who needed to be shaken up a little. He sunk his teeth into our problem of getting that school built. He even wrote a three-page Bill which basically fired a shot across the bureaucracy’s bow: “Do your damn job, or we’ll do it for you.” It worked. Within a month, the feds stopped moving the goalposts and granted the final permit the school district needed. Today, Jonas Salk Elementary is a leading elementary school with a high school-level science lab and curriculum. Bilbray was our fullback. He understood that “touchdowns” were scored by local leaders. Congressional representatives, more often than not, are needed to block, not score. Bilbray got this. He lost his seat in 2012 and we no longer had a fullback in Congress. I felt we deserved one. And I saw up close and personal what that meant. And so, I ran for Congress. But it isn’t enough to have local reasons. As one who cares about individual liberty, and as a cybersecurity business owner, my main national reason for running was to bring the U.S. Constitution into the digital age. I remember that. During your campaign, you cut a video titled “Bring Back the Dinner Table,” where you explain the difference between today’s Digital Age and the world before the Digital Age. How does this change the way you see civil liberties? LOCAL NEWS | www.LocalUmbrellaMedia.com
We have to be able to talk about these things at the dinner table. Our children get their first sense of politics and current events from these conversations. But we must first understand the issues in order to talk about them. And the best explanations are the simplest, even if they might not be technically perfect. I understand the technology inside and out, and if I am teaching a college class on it, I’ll be precise and exact. But here – and in my book – I am not worried about precision as much as I want to equip my neighbors to have everyday conversations. They might be at the “water cooler” at work or the “dinner table” at home. But they are essential conversations if we wish to remain free people. You write about how the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment in this area. What is your background here and why do you believe there is no protection in the Fourth Amendment? I grew up in a family of lawyers, and it was always a topic of discussion. Then, later, I taught critical thinking at the undergraduate level and covered the relationship between it and the law. As I built my cybersecurity career, I developed /LocalUmbrellaMedia
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a side practice as an expert witness in cyber and computer-related cases. So, reading case records and judicial decisions is not new to me. The simplest explanation here is to think about when you buy a new phone. You back the old one up to a Big Tech server, and then restore that to your new phone. Now, your phone is considered a personal possession – what the Fourth Amendment calls your “effects.” SCOTUS has ruled that police need a warrant to look at the data on your phone. But that exact same data – under other SCOTUS decisions – is considered a “third-party business record.” Law enforcement can serve a warrant on your Big Tech platform and get what you think is “your data” without your knowledge or consent. Tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have been asked about this. What do you think about their answer? It’s amazing how consistent the answers are across the board from these CEOs. They always say something like “You control your information.” The problem is the question was “Who owns the data?” Note that they were not asked about either “control” or “information.” If you ADVERTISE | Brad@LocalUmbrella.com
