When Hussian disparaged US data gathering on citizens he said something to the effect that “no one is sitting around reading your emails and texts.
He is factually correct. All data is streamed through software for trigger points, ie certain words or patterns that have been determined to be problematic. Those flagged are looked at closely . Then all the information is stored. And can be brought if you are ever in the government’s sights. For whatever reason. All the information is there if they want it. And since they have the information they can massage it and manipulate it if need be. That is why I believe nothing any more that are accusations by the government.
With the huge task of preventing terrorist attacks on the Homeland using limited resources, I have no doubt that whatever techniques are used to identify those threats are not going to be squandered on citizens who are not involved in illegal activity.
These agencies do not have the time nor the inclination to zero in on anything that does not trigger real security concerns. These methods rely heavily on computerized programs searching data, most of which is never looked at by human eyes.
So much of our personal lives is already out there on data bases that have nothing to do with the Patriot Act. Medical Records, banking records, phone records,credit card purchases, Google searches... the list goes on. Nothing is Private anymore and won’t be even if the Patriot Act goes away. I say retain those aspects of the Patriot Act that enable investigative agencies responsible for security to do their jobs in keeping us safe.
I like MIke lees bill and am glad that Cruz supports it.