I hate this crime, but having said that, your argument doesn&#x27;t hold water.<p>As another commenter pointed out, they can&#x27;t even keep their own stuff secure. In addition, if <i>politically</i> it&#x27;s useful, you can bet that somehow it&#x27;ll find a way to get out: the Justice Department aren&#x27;t the only folks able to do parallel construction. Plus folks in government agencies leak confidential stuff all the time on deep background, or as a way of scoring political points.<p>This is a terrible thing, but it&#x27;s a terrible thing because people procuring and owning massive datasets on other people is wrong. I understand that society&#x27;s morals haven&#x27;t caught up with that yet, but that&#x27;s the only solution that makes any sense: I own my data, I store my data, under certain conditions I may lease&#x2F;lend you my data for a limited time only -- and all other uses of it, whether by private or governmental bodies -- is theft.