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What strikes me funny is that conservatives thought it was fine that Bush was doing this, but now that it's Obama, it's the end of freedoms as we know it.
On the flip side, liberals were up in arms about government over-steps when it was Bush and now that it's Obama, there's very little noise made about it.
Exactly! Thank goodness for the Internet. What would we do without it? I'd have to go find a library open on a Sunday evening to look for an article from 2006.
[url=http://news.cnet.com/ATT-sued-over-NSA-spy-program/2100-1028_3-6033501.html]AT&T sued over NSA spy program - CNET News[/url]
People who don't want any attention must stay completely 100% off the internet. If you get on the computer, if they want you badly enough, they can find you
So true. In fact, you'd probably have to cut your credit cards and close your bank accounts too. I don't think the government cares if we chat about where to retire or how to make a good cabbage stew. However, it does care if you have ties to terrorist groups. The bombing in Boston indicates that all this spying on Americans didn't work too well.
Still, I have Googled and Binged words like "AK-47" and "AR-15 100 Round Drum" many times and nobody's knocking on my door!
This is much ado about nothing. Spying has been going on in this country for a long, long time. We just have more technology than we had 50 years ago. If innocent Americans like yours truly are arrested for using search engines or talking to friends about their political views, then I'll begin to worry.
I like this post. 'Bout sums it up! Do you have a past life on this forum? Have you been here before, Lordy Lordy? Your writing style seems quite familiar. I know... you'll never tell.
People who don't want any attention must stay completely 100% off the internet. If you get on the computer, if they want you badly enough, they can find you
You would have to do a lot more than stay off the internet. Have a driver license? Ever go to a doctor? Ever appeared on a surveillance camera? Ever go to school?
Here's a partial list from the NSA of domestic surveillance data it collects and analyzes on US citizens.
internet searches
websites visited
emails sent and received
social media activity (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
blogging activity including posts read, written, and commented on - View our patent
medical information including diagnoses and treatments
prescription drug purchases
guns and ammunition sales
educational records
arrest records
driver license information
Remember, the above is a partial list. That is invasive enough, no? So since the NSA is comfortable with revealing this much, imagine how invasive what it won't reveal must be. Here is the NSA page: Domestic Surveillance National Data Warehouse
Note that the first line on that page is:
Your Data: If You Have Nothing to Hide, You Have Nothing to Fear
How many sheep do we see parroting this every day? They have learned absolutely nothing from history.
Spying has been going on in this country for a long, long time. We just have more technology than we had 50 years ago. If innocent Americans like yours truly are arrested for using search engines or talking to friends about their political views, then I'll begin to worry.
When it comes to that point, it is too late (you will need a revolution to change things). Intelligent people learn from other people's (or countries') mistakes. Dumb ones learn on their own skin.
I didn't think it was so surprising at all. I thought that should be a given or common knowledge by now.
Obama assured people no spying is going on, meanwhile even the liberal MSNBC is talking about it and recognize it as an issue. I think the powers that be aren't too happy with Obama. Spying vs keeping track of people. I think keeping track and labels of people is the bigger problem. It'll take 300 million agents to monitor what every American is saying or doing online or on the telephone.
Same here. I wasn't surprised at last week's news, although it's annoying that they just come right out and admit it like it's nothing now. And it has nothing to do with who is sitting in the White House at the moment. They are all the same.
of course we are safely anonymous out here on city-data. the nsa isn't collecting all our posts to search them for keywords and phrases, while tracking our ip addresses to cross-reference with other forums. and we are not using various means to mask our real ip addresses and identities.
Of course one should be aware they can and if something dings will react to it. I think it was on 60 minutes or one of those shows where they showed how that works with a large mainframe that filters and has for awhile. Enough points and they look, but with the billions of bits of data passing every second they won't look at small details.
I see more immediate danger to the individual not up to something on the internet if they use their real name and give sufficent information to find them through social media, and someone pretending to be what they aren't picks a target. Yes, governments collect information but they just can do it better now.
The way they were using phone records shows how with enough of a mass of data you can make a model of an individual and their life. Anyone watch Caprica, the prequall to Battlestar Galactica about the birth of the cylons? This is how the first one was given an identity.
I'm not saying I approve of the data mining, but it happens and in some form always has. Today it hits critical mass quicker and more completely. But you should not post anything anywhere without being aware that it can't be erased. This is immaterial I'd guess to those who use facebook and make their lives openly public. Yes you can make something private but it doesn't take the NSA to break in. Why else would companies hire reformed hackers to watch their security. Assume anything can be broken and act accordingly.
If I was a verizon customer I'd be looking for another company, but we don't have any assurance they didn't give except not so openly.
Sadly, we are giving away our privacy for a lot of fun toys.
People who don't want any attention must stay completely 100% off the internet. If you get on the computer, if they want you badly enough, they can find you
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances.
The Information Assurance mission confronts the formidable challenge of preventing foreign adversaries from gaining access to sensitive or classified national security information. The Signals Intelligence mission collects, processes, and disseminates intelligence information from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and to support military operations. This Agency also enables Network Warfare operations to defeat terrorists and their organizations at home and abroad, consistent with U.S. laws and the protection of privacy and civil liberties.
Executive Order 12333, originally issued 4 December 1981, delineates the NSA/CSS roles and responsibilities. In part, the Director, NSA/Chief, CSS is charged to:
Collect (including through clandestine means), process, analyze, produce, and disseminate signals intelligence information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes to support national and departmental missions;
Act as the National Manager for National Security Systems as established in law and policy, and in this capacity be responsible to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director, National Intelligence;
Prescribe security regulations covering operating practices, including the transmission, handling, and distribution of signals intelligence and communications security material within and among the elements under control of the Director of the National Security Agency, and exercise the necessary supervisory control to ensure compliance with the regulations.
In my opinion, the NSA has been doing exactly what they were tasked with doing, ever since the 80s.
If they did any less, people would scream that they were failing to do their job.
Among my roles on submarines I have been a SIGINT customer.
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Do you have a past life on this forum? Have you been here before, Lordy Lordy? 
Your writing style seems quite familiar. I know... you'll never tell. 
