We’re all under surveillance. So what?

Maclean's ^ | JUNE 21, 2013 | Jesse Brown

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Just try spying on them the way they spy on us and see what happens.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It seems the NSA was in fact recording Tamerlan Tsarnev’s phone calls, but the Boston Marathon bomber fell through the cracks—nobody got around to transcribing or analyzing the tape. According to Binney, Big Data is worse than ineffective — it actually renders the NSA “dysfunctional,” as real leads get lost in oceans of irrelevant snoopage. This helps the NSA perpetually demand (and receive) ever-increased funding to buy more and more transcribers and analysts, but it does little to keep America safe.

One thing never changes, government is incompetent.

Sometimes that's a good thing.

[Optimist]

It doesn’t matter until it matters... Then it’s too late.

[Paladin2]

Dear Jesse Brown , you useless rube;

0bama is NOT under surveillance by the citizens of the US. Nor H0lder. Nor the IRS. Nor the BATFE. Nor etc.

The gov't is supposed to be your servant. Your are not supposed to be its wage slave.

For the gov't to have greater surveillance capabilities over you than the reverse is the very definition of tyranny.

[Paladin2]

It’s “funny” that those on the “Watch List” don’t get watched much.

[muir_redwoods]

Perhaps the solution is (PIPE BOMB AT DISNEY WORLD) for all of us (CYANIDE IN THE CITY WATER SUPPLY) to talk like terrorists (DEATH TO ALL GOVERNMENTS!!) all the time. Just an (BLOW UP THE SEARS TOWER, BURN DOWN FENWAY PARK, FIRE BOMB THE NYC SUBWAY) idea .

[Pollster1]

I would love to see “Anonymous” or some similarly talented group pull a PRISM on Obama, Pelosi, Boehner, and a few other prominent supporters of government snooping. Hack into their phone records, and release just the numbers called to and from, and the times of the calls. Hack into their Internet usage, and release a list of where they go on the Internet. Hack into their email, and release a list of who they corresponded with and when.

This is purely a hypothetical, and I am not advocating a crime, just a thought experiment, but if the NSA and Secret Service snoops monitoring Free Republic considered the ramifications, they would understand why decent people object to being spied upon.

[proxy_user]

“Privacy” is a strange concept. Up until a couple of hundred years ago, everyone lived in small villages where nothing was really secret. If you wanted to know what somebody was up to, you just asked around. Everybody knew everybody else’s business.

[AlexW]

I would imagine that Free Republic is at the top of the watch list, but not even that bothers me so much. I am just thankful that I have not set foot in the USSA in the last ten years.

[Flag_This]

" It seems the NSA was in fact recording Tamerlan Tsarnev’s phone calls, but the Boston Marathon bomber fell through the cracks—nobody got around to transcribing or analyzing the tape."

Yeah, because they were too effin' busy going through the Repubs' dirty laundry, trying to find stuff to make them turn their votes.

[livius]

Yes, but if you left your village, nobody knew a darn thing about you. That was the reason for many an emigrant to the US and then, if things got too hot in their village here, on to the Wild West.

Plus, it wasn’t the government doing it. It was just nosy neighbors.

[Flag_This]

"Everybody knew everybody else’s business."

Nothing beats village gossip for truth and accuracy.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rickmichaels.

[a fool in paradise]

Ted Kennedy’s communication emails with Leftist groups on government computers was easily viable to anyone in the offices and he threw a sh!tfit when it became public knowledge that he was coordinating with NAACP and others to deny Bush his judicial appointees to affect the outcome of pending court decisions.

[Paladin2]

The "village" is NOT about Personal Liberty.

Nor the pursuit of excellence.

Nor the Scientific Method.

Nor Creative Distruction.

Nor, etc.

[Paladin2]

"or a Bradley Manning"

THAT's gay.

[justa-hairyape]

What the people think is more or less irrelevant to the fact that the very existence of the data base is a threat to national security. Any foreign agent that can penetrate their security will be able to compromise any citizen of the US by accessing the data base. And they certainly cannot claim that their security will be adequate now that one of their sys admins is over in Hong Kong. It has to be destroyed. The entire data base.

[Standing Wolf]

Just try spying on them the way they spy on us and see what happens.

What could the vermin possibly have to hide?

[cripplecreek]

Any foreign agent that can penetrate their security will be able to compromise any citizen of the US by accessing the data base.

And a lot of the people the contractors hire are foreign nationals anyway. It was just a few years ago that a Chinese national was accused of stealing secrets from Los Alamos national lab where he worked. It turned out that he didn't do it but it was also discovered that he and others were "sloppy" with security.