You’re not wrong - but “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” comes to mind.
“Negligence” and “strict liability” are different standards, you can’t treat one with the other.
> So if you "could have" caused a leak, it's still treated like a leak.
That’s very much not how the Espionage Act works, even just on the statute and beforr considering Supreme Court precedent limiting its application.
https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com/data-spill-an-everyday/
This is a better summary. At the start, everyone's phones would likely be confiscated and, I would think, destroyed, if they were discovered to have classified data on them. However, if the data was in the cloud it would be an even bigger deal.
Was that your point?