What government can routinely do
Standing Technical Informational Capability
Fiduciary Commons
The Government's Power to Know
Digital government can acquire powers that no single agency was ever given. Fiduciary Commons asks what government may legitimately know, what it actually needs to know, and how systems can make unnecessary informational power unavailable rather than merely unused.
The problem
Power, not only privacy
A government may comply with many separate rules and still possess a capability that no law, purpose, or necessity justifies. The constitutional question is not only whether an official accessed information. It is whether government built a standing power to know that exceeds legitimate authority.
The controlling relationship
Capability must remain inside necessity and authority
STIC <= NSIC <= SLIA
What government needs routinely to do
Necessary Standing Informational Capability
What government may legitimately do
Standing Legitimate Informational Authority
Legal authority sets a boundary. It does not instruct government to build every capability that could fit within that boundary.
The framework
One system from theory to verification
- Ordered Informational Authority
The general theory of legitimate informational power. - Fiduciary Commons
The constitutional and fiduciary governance model. - FCGIAS
The architecture standard that makes limits inspectable. - PDTA, VIDA, and GAAFA
Coordinated model legislation. - Procurement and Conformance
Instruments for building, buying, testing, and maintaining systems.
Public gateway
Twelve principles
1
Facts are not property merely because they concern a person.
2
Possession does not create authority.
3
Technical capability does not create authority.
4
Commercial availability does not create governmental authority.
5
Interoperability does not aggregate governmental authority.
6
Government should receive the Authorized Answer, not automatically the underlying informational environment.
Architecture in practice
See the choices that shape power
No Phone Home
Verify without unnecessary observation.
Authorized Answer
Return the proposition, not the informational environment.
Query Without Collection
Check a condition without building a history.
AI Authority Inheritance
Computation creates no new governmental authority.