In an op-ed for Bloomberg View, Noah Feldman examines the role metadata plays when determining the privacy rights of the government and the public based on a lawsuit currently in front of the New Jersey Supreme Court. The case was brought by Open Government Advocacy Project Chairman John Paff, who has demanded the email logs — their metadata, not content — of government officials under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act. According to Feldman, the "lawsuit in effect asks: if metadata isn't that private, why not give the public access to the government's records of who contacted whom, and when?" In defense of the government, lawyers have essentially echoed concerns of privacy advocates, stating that metadata reveals a lot about an individual and "would compromise confidentiality." Privacy advocates have long called for more metadata protections for citizens. Feldman notes that the public shouldn't get the metadata of government officials because of how much is revealed, but adds, "the police have something like the same privacy interests in their communications metadata that you and I should have in ours."
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