Snowden is a traitor, on par or worse than the Walkers. Good people will die because of him. Many probably already have.
Whether phone billing records (what’s getting all the attention) are kept in big databases by telcos where they can be subpoenaed daily, or in big databases by the NSA where they just query at will, the fact is that the data exists whether or not it sits in one place or another. What matters is what’s actually -done- with the data. Good people can argue that one or the other is better or worse. There’s no evidence that there has been any actual misuse of these billing records. To me... I’m not sure what a misuse might be. Looking up the called numbers of random Americans for no reason tells them... What?
If the NSA didn’t have it, some dweeb at the phone company still does. Again... The data exists. What matters is what things are done with the data. Is that dweeb at the phone company a threat to me? Maybe? Though I’m not sure how.
I’m just a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. Seems to me this is all exactly the sort of basic data that, if nobody WAS collecting it, we’d all be infuriated at their incompetence. At a minimum, we should expect that the NSA should be able to track back phone calls when they find a hot number in the field to see who they’ve been talking to. Should they not? Really?
You really don’t understand the issues, do you.
Put this way, The Government and Google knows more about you than your spouse or family and friends.
Knowledge is power. They aren’t going to use that power for your benefit.
Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere
Whether phone billing records (what’s getting all the attention) are kept in big databases by telcos where they can be subpoenaed daily, or in big databases by the NSA where they just query at will, the fact is that the data exists whether or not it sits in one place or another. What matters is what’s actually -done- with the data.
No; how the data is obtained is important — otherwise there would be no need for the 4th amendment.
If the ends do not justify the means, so that the end hasn't [yet] been catastrophic cannot be used to validate the means; if the ends do justify the means, then why do we hold public/open criminal jury trials?
The real problem with Snowden is that he made America look weak before our enemies. That is betrayal.
People will die should some kind of weakness or future traitor do worse, and given the fan club that exists for the fantasy.
Snowden, however, is not the sole problem, it could potentially also be those who hired him as well. It worries me that not much vetting was neccessarily done on the backgrounds of plenty of people who work for the government, how did Snowden get entrusted as a contractor to so many files and documents? How did Manning? It does give a bad appearance that our government stinks to high heaven of incompetency.