05-15-2006, 07:24 PM
asteele2 Wrote:Rather than "why shouldn't the NSA have your phone records?" the question needs to be "why does the NSA need my phone records?" Even if that's somehow justifiable, though, it's a pretty inefficient way to go about developing leads. I don't imagine that all that information is stored in thin air, either (though storage is incredibly cheap).
In criminal cases this type of information needs explicit judicial approval for collection (I think). Why does the exact same information, directed at people who are not charged with anything, become freely accessable when it's arbitrarily named a matter of national security? I'm not hiding anything, but that doesn't mean I don't value my privacy. When I haven't broken any laws, especially none that would make my phone records relevant, why should the government have the option of telling me how much privacy I am allowed to have? Will my porn browsing habits eventually be publicized? I'd agree if you said my concerns weren't high on the serious, or priority list. We're not dealing with the general will, though.
Just because you could save a life by declaring a certain liberty void because of a time of crisis doesn't mean that you should. Sacrifice one thing here, another thing there, and the deterioration of values could become a downward spiral... get far enough and you're losing a lot more than one person's life. I guess that might sound extremist...
Andrew you should sit down and analyze the situation and think about what is really happening instead of buying into the media line of "your rights/privacy/civil liberties/freedoms are being VIOLATED" media tagline here.
The most important concept in this whole thing is that the NSA is not spying on you, they are gathering data (as opposed to information) on communication transactions. When that data is processed, turned into information, certain patterns are flagged, which creates probable cause and at that point whoever is doing illegal/suspect shit is linked back to that information and identified. So unless you're building bombs in your basement no-one is violating your privacy, and if you are, then fuck you i hope you get caught :lol:
This is no different from a police officer watching you go about your business during the day. There is nothing wrong with him observing you, and if he sees you engage in suspicious activity he has probably cause to identify you, and even question you.
The problem is that as more of our lives are spent on the huge data networks of the information age, we are for some reason feel that any and all presence on that network is completely private, which I disagree with. Just like you cant put on an invisible coat in real life.
one pet peeve in this issue (and something that sets off my personal bullshit detector on an issue) is exaggerating the issue into an emotionally charged phrase such as "civil liberties"
This has to do with privacy, not civil liberties (and even that is debatable). No one is pointing a gun to your head, telling you what you can and can't do, there are no laws regarding your freedoms. Pretty damn rediculous, but hey, I guess it sounds real dramatic. :roll: