You wouldn’t have access to different kinds of data. Even when you have a clearance your access is limited.
For example, I had access to only one classified filing cabinet. Once done with that, the locks are changed and I lost access.
For computers, they have special rooms with data on those computers is limited.
My husband and I worked at the same company and both of us had top secret clearance. I couldn’t go into areas he could go to, and vice versa. I don’t know what type of access he had and he doesn’t know what I had. We could not talk to each other about our projects even though we both had top secret clearances at the same company and we were both software engineers.
(by the way, I loved when we both had top secret clearances because we never brought our work home with us.)
But that’s really my point.
John Brennan surely has no access to that filing cabinet you mention. Or to the special rooms where the computers with the special data. He has no access because he has no “need to know”.
So why does he have an active clearance? In what way has his clearance been helping him since he left the CIA? Why is he so upset that his clearance has been stripped?
The answer is obvious: he’s been getting access to things that neither your husband nor you would have access to. But he seems to have access even when he shouldn’t have access. And why does he want this to continue? Because he basically sells classified information. It’s not right.