26 replies to this topic

[Big Ego]

hahaha xD that was good

[Samus]

I've been reassured several times but the fine folk on my television screen that they the only information they take is the actual phone numbers, and then see if you've been communicating with known terrorist or other seriously bad people, then they can get a court order to actually start monitoring you. So chances are if you don't make phone calls to the Middle East, you have nothing at all to worry about. Assuming all this is true and the checks and balances are maintained.

Do you really believe that?

 
I don't believe it with certainty, and I wouldn't put it pass them, but I doubt their capacity to actually record, save and shift through everything we say.. and without word getting out that such a program exists.

It just seems more likely to me that, at most, they search for key words, or key numbers, and only look at what might be relevant. Not because they wouldn't like to read everything in the world, but who has time for that?

Still, the potential for abuse of this technology is disturbing and I think the criticism of it is good.

I'm pretty sure they save the data.

They have the tech/hardware to do so.

They probably don't go through everything.

But they can keep it as a sort of backlog to go back ten years and use something you said then to fuck your life over, even if it wasn't relevant

[Shahenshah]

What will ever happen to all the anti-China propaganda now!? 

[Big Ego]

Maybe, Samus.

It's just, I trust the American people to cause an uproar, even revolt, if the government goes too far.. and I trust big business and the government don't want a bloody revolution, they want a peaceful populace that produces, buys and sells goods.

Things change though, who knows?

[Bykenhaal]

The problem is much bigger then this. America is changing not for the better. Third world people flood America and middle class is changed to second class. 

 

This snooping is crazy. One NSA guy said "It is to cheap not to do this" in regards to harvesting all out meta data. Hmmm how much is to cheap like 10 million? This is why we are falling behind. It is not that we need smart people from india to get the best SAT score no we can do that also. We need to provide for our own people first not some crazy idea of what America should be in the still minority. 

[d3mon]

The problem is much bigger then this. America is changing not for the better. Third world people flood America and middle class is changed to second class. 

 

This snooping is crazy. One NSA guy said "It is to cheap not to do this" in regards to harvesting all out meta data. Hmmm how much is to cheap like 10 million? This is why we are falling behind. It is not that we need smart people from india to get the best SAT score no we can do that also. We need to provide for our own people first not some crazy idea of what America should be in the still minority. 

 

I hate to burst your bubble but USA as an entity was built by immigrants. Saying that immigration is the cause of all the issues is truly ignorant.

[President Mudbrick]

I'm way late to the party on this thread, but I figure it needed to be said: this isn't the first time for this sort of invasion of privacy. They've been doing this exact sort of thing for years, and it's been brought to the attention of US citizens before. Unfortunately, the uproar lasts for a handful of days, until the next headlines push it out of the limelight, and then the American people shrug and say "well, time to shake our fist at the next thing, I suppose."

 

The problem seems to be that Americans (I'm one of those, and point my finger at myself as well) get really complacent with our own small slice of life. House with the picket fence, big television, car in the drive, decent job,  enough disposable income to keep up with a hobby, and we're less likely to throw away those small comforts to effect the status quo. I believe the general consensus is that "well, it doesn't really effect me personally, so why worry about it?"  Besides, what fills the power vacuum when you run off the guy with the big stick who's been telling you how it's going to be: another guy with a different stick.

 

I feel, at least in this case, that I don't really care what the NSA has a look at. I know it's as much a cliche as any other, but I'm not sure why one should worry if one has nothing to hide. People claim it's just another blow against our civil liberties, but my life hasn't changed for better or worse since all this started 12 years ago when the towers fell.