Ok so you seem to know what you're talking about. Can you explain the difference between "clearance" and "access"? I assume that access means you are free to view information at different levels of security. But what are the benefits of having clearance? Does it mean you are just allowed to enter certain facilities with your credentials or is it more than that? I guess what I'm asking is - say you had a computer in a secure facility that you were able to keep files on the were classified. Would there be a way for someone with just clearance to get into that computer and extract stuff that may have been stored when you had that access?
Pulling from prior Army experience for myself and Air Force experience from my sister.
I had a TS/SCI (Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information). Due to my job, I had access to tactical battle plans for fighting WWIII in Europe.
My sister was for a while, assigned to the white house communication staff. She also had a TS/SCI. Sister had ACCESS to Presidential communications, I did not, but we were cleared to the same level. I had ACCESS to battle plans down to division deployments, my sister did not.
It helps to think of it like this - Clearance represents a level of trust. Access represents the information needed to do your job.
taxcontrol is correct. When I finally retired, I was told my clearance would be reinstated if I rejoined the government within two years. This is a change to previous situations.
When I left the military back in the seventies this was not the case. I was told when I inprocessed that I had no clearance and would not have access to classified for up to six months. IOW, I would only be allowed to do coloring books while getting paid. My gaining organization ignored this since they were well aware of my clearances.
Clearance is a status that indicates the level of classified information you can see. Need to Know is a condition that indicates whether you actually need to see this information. It takes both, an appropriate level of clearance and a need to know to get access.
Being a former employee is insufficient to establish Need To Know.