Having a technologist like Felten on the panel could provide much-needed insight into the broader technical implications of government surveillance practices. F

Having a technologist like Felten on the panel could provide much-needed insight into the broader technical implications of government surveillance practices. For example, the National Security Agency (NSA) has claimed a data collection practice later ruled unconstitutional by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court was the result of a complex technical problem rather than an overreach by the NSA during a press call. Someone with technical training would be well-positioned to evaluate the technical merits of this claim. When the government is doing something bad, it's not relevant whether it came from technical problems rather than cultural. All we need to know is that the government has been doing something bad. The evidence that this has occurred, for any reason, should be sufficient to shut it down.