Security, Privacy, and Power: Why Lawyers Must Stand Up Now
March 13, 2025
Privacy Plus+
Privacy, Technology and Perspective
This week, let’s look at our (lawyers’) professional duty. Does it go beyond helping individual clients, to protecting the foundation of our legal system? And if we don't address the challenges at the intersection of technology and governance that are threatening the rule of Law, who will?
The Challenge Before Us
Institutions that took generations to build are being weakened at an alarming rate. These changes threaten the fundamental safeguards that protect our data, privacy, and constitutional rights.
Government agencies responsible for our cybersecurity have lost thousands of skilled professionals overnight. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) alone has seen massive staff reductions, including personnel dedicated to securing elections and combating misinformation. Meanwhile, outside groups with questionable credentials have gained unprecedented access to sensitive federal networks containing personal data on millions of Americans—all without following established security protocols or vetting procedures.
Consumer protection agencies have been effectively sidelined, precisely when technological innovation demands clear thought and strong oversight. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—created specifically to protect Americans from financial exploitation—has been largely obliterated, just as financial technology companies expand into increasingly complex domains affecting everyday citizens.
Anti-corruption programs and oversight mechanisms are being systematically defunded or dismantled. Inspectors general—whose independence is crucial for accountability—have been removed wholesale, while initiatives designed to combat kleptocracy and recover assets from corrupt actors have been disbanded.
Perhaps most concerning, longstanding security measures and vetting processes are now dismissed as unhelpful "red tape" that slows down progress. When security protocols are bypassed and oversight is characterized as an impediment to innovation, that isn’t streamlining—it is the dismantling of the very safeguards that preserve the integrity of our democratic systems and protect all of us.
Why Institutions Matter
The word "Institutions" causes some people to bristle, but they are far more than stultifying bureaucracy—they are the practical embodiment of our democratic values in action. Without effective governance and human rights grounded in the rule of Law, we cannot hope for peace, security, or prosperity, especially in our deeply divided world where technological disparities accelerate these divisions.
The consequences of institutional erosion are concrete and far-reaching. When cybersecurity agencies lose essential staff, we all become more vulnerable to digital threats. When unvetted outsiders gain access to government systems containing personal data on millions of Americans, our privacy, autonomy, and even safety are directly compromised. When established review processes for system changes are bypassed, we give up safety for just a little more speed.
Effective institutions transform abstract principles like accountability, transparency, and fairness into real processes that protect real people. They create the predictable environment necessary for stable markets, social trust, and sustainable progress in an increasingly complex technological environment.
This isn't about defending bureaucracy—it's about preserving the practical safeguards that make our Constitution and its promises meaningful.
The Fourth Turning: How AI Changes the Stakes
We stand at what historians might call a "Fourth Turning" — a pivotal generational shift that fundamentally alters the trajectory of society. Artificial intelligence (AI) represents not merely a technological evolution but a transformation comparable to the Industrial Revolution, with far greater velocity and far-reaching consequences for our institutions and legal frameworks, not to mention people.
AI magnifies our concerns exponentially. Unlike past “revolutions,” AI systems can operate with increasing autonomy, learning and adapting beyond their initial programming, and making consequential decisions that affect millions of lives simultaneously. These systems already determine creditworthiness, recommend medical treatments, influence hiring decisions, and shape public discourse — often without clear explanations of how those decisions are reached, and without the knowledge of those whose lives and opinions AI is shaping.
The stakes couldn't be higher. As these technologies become more powerful and independent, the absence of strong institutional oversight becomes not just concerning but potentially catastrophic. We face fundamental questions about sovereignty and governance:
· Who controls these systems?
· What values guide their development?
· What human beings have meaningful input? Who are they? How do they benefit?
· How do we ensure accountability when things go wrong?
· And how can we be sure that these systems are constrained, so that humans maintain oversight and control of them?
The terrible irony of this moment is that institutions are being destroyed precisely when we need them to be strengthened. When agencies like the CFPB are sidelined just as algorithmic financial technologies expand, we're creating a dangerous gap. When cybersecurity sentinels are fired while autonomous systems proliferate, we're removing the safeguards at exactly the moment they become most critical.
This institutional erosion isn't only ill-timed—it's counterproductive and potentially catastrophic. The unprecedented power of AI demands more robust oversight, not less; strong institutional guardrails, not weak or missing ones; and clearer accountability mechanisms, not their gleeful removal with memes, jokes, and chainsaw performances.
We face a choice: Either strengthen our institutional frameworks to govern these transformative technologies, or accept that algorithms optimized by private companies for efficiency and profit—rather than justice, fairness, human dignity, or even basic national security—will increasingly shape the foundations of our society.
Our Thoughts
Our Constitutional Duty: We took an oath to uphold the Constitution. We therefore have a responsibility at this time when both political actors and technology simultaneously threaten institutional integrity.
Standing against Abuses of Power: We must stand up against abuses of power. We must advocate for AI governance that strengthens rather than weakens judicial independence, equal protection, and due process. We must defend established security protocols as vital safeguards, not obstacles to progress. And we must speak up when executive power threatens to concentrate technological control in ways that bypass constitutional checks and balances.
Protecting the Most Vulnerable: Our obligation extends particularly to those most vulnerable in society. When institutions erode and technological powers concentrate without adequate oversight, it is always society's most vulnerable who suffer first and, usually, most severely. Consumer protection rollbacks leave disadvantaged populations exposed to predatory practices. Weakening privacy safeguards most affects those without resources to protect themselves. Meanwhile, algorithmic systems often amplify existing biases without strong institutional guardrails to ensure fairness and accountability.
Affirming Human Dignity: We must advocate that all technological advancement serves human dignity and expands opportunity for all, not just those with the resources and knowledge to navigate these increasingly complex systems. This commitment to protecting the vulnerable isn't separate from our commitment to the rule of Law—it's at its very heart.
Restoring Respect and Decency: Underlying all these concerns is something even more fundamental: the need for respect and human decency in our governance systems and technological development. When we bypass institutional safeguards in the name of efficiency, we often sacrifice the human-centered processes that ensure people are treated with dignity rather than as data points.
Strong institutions embody our collective commitment to treat each citizen with respect—enforcing fairness, ensuring transparency, and providing recourse when wrongs occur.
In the rush toward algorithmic governance and AI-driven efficiency, we risk losing sight of the profound human values that our legal system was designed to protect. Technology without decency becomes merely a more efficient means of exploitation. Governance without respect becomes abuse of power.
Call to Action: If lawyers don't address these serious challenges at the intersection of technology and governance, who will stand up for the rule of Law? And when the abusers of power—whether they be ideologues or “intelligent” systems—direct their ire toward you, who will stand up for you?
Stand up now.
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Hosch & Morris, PLLC is a boutique law firm dedicated to data privacy and protection, cybersecurity, the Internet and technology. Open the Future℠.