FedScoop lists five tech projects “buried” in the President's current budget proposal. Whitney Blair Wyckoff's piece includes anti-encryption research – a topic which is getting a lot of attention in the media because of the FBI's requests to Apple about unlocking an iPhone – using jobs data, self-driving cars, body-worn cameras, and precision medicine.
So look – “buried” is the word used by the headline writer. Wyckoff herself uses “tucked away” in the story. Since I'm commenting here for wider purposes than the news cycle, I want to abstract away from both images and develop a larger point about the role of technology in government initiatives. And I'd opt for “embedded”.
The tech issues highlighted in the budget proposal call attention to the central role of data in our civilization. Data is now crucial to the way we live. It's not going back in the box. Data communications are embedded in society.
Government will increasingly need (or want) to make policy around the creation, communication, and consumption of data. Legislators must take this on board. They need to scrutinize data-related proposals with care. They may need the advice and guidance of specialists, but they must not abrogate their responsibility. FedScoop
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