By now everyone knows about Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified documents revealing the practice of the National Security Agency in mining data from the cell phones and email logs of American citizens. New revelations about the extent of the gathering and use of data appear in the media every day. The conversation surrounding these practices usually ranges from outrage over the invasion of privacy of a huge segment of the American population to support for the practice if the intended effect is to protect us from terrorist attacks. In the wake of these revelations, stories have arisen about the role of local governments in surveillance of license plates and of business in mining data on consumer buying patterns. Three days ago the New York Times ran an article about how cities like Oakland, CA, and New York City are mounting devices in police cars that scan license plates in efforts to fight crime and track down terrorist threats. In an article in Forbes Magazine called “How Target Figured Out a Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” writer Kashmir Hill notes that Target was able to track a young woman’s buying patterns and target advertising and coupons to her at critical times during her pregnancy.Our three panelists and I agree that this is an issue that has important ethical, legal, and foreign policy implications that warrant a public discussion. So this panel discussion is an effort to at least begin that conversation.