Did Snowden really tell us anything we didn’t already know?
No, he didn’t. Anyone paying attention has known about the NSA data mining the electronic world. The curse of increased technology will always be decreased privacy. We willingly subject ourselves to this when we search the world wide web and the companies we search with use our searches to target advertisements to us and sell our information to others. We subject ourselves to this when we go to websites that put cookies on our computers to track our habits.
I would argue google and yahoo know more about us than the NSA. This is a difficult situation and the real question should be “what did congress know and when did they know it.” I believe they have to approve this if it is legal. If they did not approve it, I believe Rand Paul is correct and this was illegal.
Google and Yahoo do not carry the power of the state to audit, harass and prosecute.
“I would argue google and yahoo know more about us than the NSA.”
Probably so, and Amazon knows what I’m going to order before I do, but I engage in that transaction willingly and knowingly.
It ticks me off when the MSM excuses governmental invasion of privacy because we give up our privacy on the internet to corporations. It’s not the same thing at all. Government invasion is surreptitious, all invasive, and has punitive force behind it.
I agree with you and Rand Paul and amazingly this time with Daniel Ellsberg whose Pentagon Papers case (much worse than the Snowden leak) was thrown out by the courts.
I do wonder how the Ellsberg precedent favors Snowden should he be brought to trial?
“We subject ourselves to this when we go to websites that put cookies on our computers to track our habits.”
There are multiple freeware programs that block cookies. There are also multiple freeware programs that will erase cookies from the hard drive.