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You've used this example several times. Yes, they screwed up.
Sometimes people die in car accidents. Most of the time they have airbags, seatbelts and are following the speed limits. So does that mean we should't have any of these safety features in our vehicles or strap children into the proper car seats? You can also eat well, exercise daily and still drop dead from heart failure. So should we all start drinking, smoking and eating fatty foods? If a plane crashes because of human error, should we stop training pilots?
The point is, this is not about terrorism. You don't feel up 80 year old women getting on an airplane to address terrorism.
Why you and so many others aren't more concerned that our country's intelligence agencies are being targeted is puzzling to me. Just because they have the ability to use cell phones and smart televisions as cyber weapons doesn't mean they are spying on John and Jane Doe. How long have you been on the Internet? I remember the first time a saw a message pop-up on AOL 22 years ago and realized anyone could get into my computer, not just the government.
I'm more curious about the timing of the latest "dump" since it comes at a very good time for Trump. Right after the Access Hollywood tape brought Trump down and Clinton's poll numbers were climbing, the DNC emails were released. Now the probe into Trump's ties with Russia is getting hot (Flynn resigning, Sessions recusing himself) and guess what? Wikileaks! What a great distraction for our nutty President.
Free societies tend to take their freedom for granted. But our liberties do not derive from the innate trustworthiness of our elected representatives. They derive from laws and institutions put in place for the preservation of liberty. Elected representatives can misuse that information.
Americans’ privacy. It is disingenuous for officials to characterize the “metadata” being collected as mere phone numbers. Sophisticated computer programs can glean volumes of sensitive information from this metadata about people’s relationships, activities, and even beliefs. The government knows very well how revealing call records can be; that is why it considers the program so valuable.
Free societies tend to take their freedom for granted. But our liberties do not derive from the innate trustworthiness of our elected representatives. They derive from laws and institutions put in place for the preservation of liberty. Elected representatives can misuse that information.
Americans’ privacy. It is disingenuous for officials to characterize the “metadata” being collected as mere phone numbers. Sophisticated computer programs can glean volumes of sensitive information from this metadata about people’s relationships, activities, and even beliefs. The government knows very well how revealing call records can be; that is why it considers the program so valuable.
It takes a great deal of paranoia (or arrogance) to believe the intel community's most sensitive collection techniques revolve around you. If you are a US citizen, resident alien or even physically present in the US, it isn't about you. It's about all the people who aren't in the US.
The elected representatives to which you refer are the most clueless group I've ever met. The sum and substance of their involvement is to vote to appropriate more than $50 billion each year to the IC.
The 'sophisticated computer programs' you're talking about were my (or some analyst's) eyeballs and brains. That's all the magic that's involved. And we frankly don't care how often Americans call out for pizza. We are interested in how many times a foreign intelligence service's operatives call out for pizza.
The reason the government stored some parts of the phone companies' billing records (what has been dubbed 'metadata') is because the phone companies didn't want to store them. The reason the phone companies didn't want to store them is because every phone company in the country gets inundated with subpoenas every single day for phone records from every slip and fall attorney, divorce attorney, drug detective and a whole host of others who have the authority to write or obtain subpoenas. It costs the phone company a lot of money to comply with all of those subpoeas. They would rather say 'We don't have anything beyond [X number] of months,' but they can't if they are storing it to comply with federal law. So the government agreed to store it for them and, as required by law, destroys the data after five years.
To access that database, you need to be (a) a federal agent conducting a counterintelligence or counter terrorism activity, and (b) a court order. And then all you get is a bunch of digits (numbers - like 1-10). You don't get any letters (a,b,c,d... etc). To tie those numbers to an individual, you need second court order.
So take a deep breath - your liberties are both well protected and not the target of our IC. You wouldn't know that from reading today's media, but then they haven't gotten much right for the last ten years or so.
It takes a great deal of paranoia (or arrogance) to believe the intel community's most sensitive collection techniques revolve around you. If you are a US citizen, resident alien or even physically present in the US, it isn't about you. It's about all the people who aren't in the US.
The elected representatives to which you refer are the most clueless group I've ever met. The sum and substance of their involvement is to vote to appropriate more than $50 billion each year to the IC.
The 'sophisticated computer programs' you're talking about were my (or some analyst's) eyeballs and brains. That's all the magic that's involved. And we frankly don't care how often Americans call out for pizza. We are interested in how many times a foreign intelligence service's operatives call out for pizza.
The reason the government stored some parts of the phone companies' billing records (what has been dubbed 'metadata') is because the phone companies didn't want to store them. The reason the phone companies didn't want to store them is because every phone company in the country gets inundated with subpoenas every single day for phone records from every slip and fall attorney, divorce attorney, drug detective and a whole host of others who have the authority to write or obtain subpoenas. It costs the phone company a lot of money to comply with all of those subpoeas. They would rather say 'We don't have anything beyond [X number] of months,' but they can't if they are storing it to comply with federal law. So the government agreed to store it for them and, as required by law, destroys the data after five years.
To access that database, you need to be (a) a federal agent conducting a counterintelligence or counter terrorism activity, and (b) a court order. And then all you get is a bunch of digits (numbers - like 1-10). You don't get any letters (a,b,c,d... etc). To tie those numbers to an individual, you need second court order.
So take a deep breath - your liberties are both well protected and not the target of our IC. You wouldn't know that from reading today's media, but then they haven't gotten much right for the last ten years or so.
You are missing 3 critical points.
1.) The NSA is tasked to do this - not the CIA - of which certain groups have gone rouge.
2.) The CIA has lost control of their hacking tools (and anonymity) -- leaving the world open to cyber attacks/dangers.
3.) This goes far beyond personal iphones, etc. - #2 increases potential threats to critical infrastructure on a massive scale (Stuxnet).
Imagining the havoc that can be caused throughout a digitized economy is nothing to cast idly aside - since there are many people around the world that would like to see us go down. Personal privacy should be of great concern to everyone since it is not a stretch to say that cyber monitoring can easily morph into cyber control. And it's not a secret that to get around "the law" - govts. partner with other govts. to do their dirty work - so there is little comfort in advertised protections.
Last edited by illtaketwoplease; 03-09-2017 at 05:36 AM..
So take a deep breath - your liberties are both well protected and not the target of our IC. You wouldn't know that from reading today's media, but then they haven't gotten much right for the last ten years or so.
Of course, something like Breitbart is nothing more than opinion masquerading as news so no sane person takes it seriously.
Sadly, it's looking like Wikileaks is agenda driven as well and may even be an arm of the Russian Federation as former NSA/CIA Director General Michael Hayden openly hypothesized yesterday. Watch the beginning of this video to see for yourself.
That's because they collect so much data it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Indeed. In my example though the needle was sticking them in the ass and they still ignored it.
It's not about terrorism.
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