Guaranteed that advertisers will buy it.

LOL that's my view... yes the Govt snoops and collects data on us , but private enterprise already has 10X as much. They know how and where you shop, what you buy, your preferences... have all your contact data. WTF do they NOT know? very damm little.... They probably know how many times you had sex in the last week/month, with whom, and how long it lasted !

. . . and which contraceptive you used (if any).



What pisses me off about private enterprise is they SELL your data to others and make $ wo your permission.... BTW you capitalistic MoFos, where's MY cut of the moola ?

And that bothers the hell out of me too, David. By the way, the combination of state power working in tandem with private powers = fascism.

Silly Me:
I STILL Refuse to allow Google to Consolidate
and STORE my MAIL (...forever...) on the grounds
that I may Trust Them At THIS Point-In-Time...
...but Who Knows What the Future Might Bring...

In and of itself, this program may not be Big Brother, but it sure is a huge step in that direction. You may or may not trust the Obama administration to not abuse all that information just sitting there waiting to be accessed, but what about future administrations? Or more likely, some mid-level government worker bee with issues of some sort and just enough access and smarts to start playing with the data? Judicial review and "safeguards" only work if people play by the rules (and if everybody did, then there wouldn't be programs like this in the first place ;-) It's the people who ignore those rules that we have to worry about -- and given the past history of some administrations, that's a very legitimate concern ...

Also, given that the argument seems to be "but we're not spying on US citizens, just everyone else on the planet," if you're anyone but a US citizen living in the US, you've got to be feeling really warm and fuzzy about our government right now =P

Reality check:

Digital records of every digital transaction are not going to disappear, whether it's government or private corporations.

There will always be criminals in government and contracted workers.

No matter the safegaurds, someone will hack it.

Judicial oversight does not have to be a rubber stamp for 100% of warrant requests.

Legislated regulations must be enforced.

Congress does need to be filled with idiots who ignore their legislative responsibilities and act only for political gain.

The media will ignore history and fact, sensationalize any story and be politically influenced.



How does our country begin to fix this? Seems step #1 is paranoia (and we may be stuck here for a while)

It's not paranoia if it's really happening -- go back, say, 20 years and tell me we have the same protection against government surveillance and intrusion as we did in 1993.

The reality check is that 4th Amendment guarantees have been steadily eroded in favor of a more surveillance-oriented state "for our protection." Add to that Corporations having the same rights as human beings, money being free speech, the Executive having the power to detain foreign nationals and execute American citizens without due process (we're at war with Oceania Terrorists, after all!), and a Congress apparently run by eight-year-olds ... at this point a little healthy paranoia is probably a good thing ;-)

How the country fixes all of these is first to recognize what's been happening -- which is already taking place, albeit with attendant over- and under-reactions from various points of view. Then we can have that conversation Barry was talking about and hopefully establish what kind of society we want to remain/become in the face of advancing technology and capability ...

+1

The whistle has been blown, now to
examine (& possibly change) the pea.

Apparently
it's only News 2 US

Redgum A.S.I.O. "Frontline" (1984)


White door, ninth floor, silent number
It's autumn on a cold avenue
Telex intercept, he sips a cigarette
And warms up his V.D.U.

He gets his kicks from microchips
Orders from the C.I.A.
Birobugs and lasers, casual surveillance
Boardrooms and communiques

Don't use your phone and don't use mine
Don't speak treason, they're tapping the line

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything's legal, anything goes
The nights gettinG darker and an ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Trained in the ghettos of the Lebanon
Truncheons and an M16
Selling skag, a U.N. flag
Now he's trading in securities

Darwin rendezvous, a B-52, trenchcoat slightly creased
From a coup in Asia, A U.S. Air Force major
Buying dirty laundry, swearin' it's for peace

Infiltration, we'll never know
Just like Chile but the bruises don't show

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything's legal, anything goes
The nights get darker and an ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Spook behind the bar, unmarked car
Rumour hangs like stale perfume
Flushing under beds, sniffin' out the Reds
Nobody can feel immune

No names, no stress, no blame, no press
Clean when the dirty work's done
Allocate a budget, special branch thugs
Do it for the practice, do it for the fun

Midnight, flashlight, a crash on the door
Rats on the table, blood on the floor

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything's legal, anything goes
The nights get darker and an ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO