Wyden continues to be great on the surveillance issue

Carla Axtman

More of this, please (Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian):

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a leading critic of federal electronic surveillance practices, told a Portland startup this afternoon that "opt-in" should be the guiding principle for protecting online privacy from government snooping and intrusive marketers alike.

In a town hall meeting at Portland mobile software startup Urban Airship, the Oregon Democrat linked personal data that online marketers scour to the National Security Agency's data collection. In both cases, he said, people should have a right to choose which information to share.

"One of the things over the years that have begun to lay the foundation for it are opt-in principles. In other words, people very much in this country want to be able to say: I'm in charge of my information and my data," Wyden told a noontime audience of several dozen tech workers

Wyden's US Senate power trajectory is on an upswing. As Peter Parker says, "With great power comes great responsibility". Here's hoping Senator Wyden finds more opportunities like this to be wise with both.

By Carla Axtman July 19, 2013