Come on, people. Are you really that surprised that this is going on? While I have no hard evidence of course, I would wager that the federal government has been snooping on us as a country in some shape or form for quite a while now... and especially since 9/11. It's inevitable. "Privacy" today is not by any stretch what it was even 50 years go, let alone 200 years ago when the whole concept of our right to privacy was first written up. If the whole Verizon thing shocked you, you may want to fasten your seatbelt. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, even Microsoft (if all the Xbox One Rumors are true) have all been doing something along the same lines for years. Why do you think when you do a search for "inflatable beer koozie," all the sudden your facebook page and web ads are full of commercials for booze?
It's funny to me that everyone is going after the government here. Has anyone gotten mad at Verizon? They signed the damn agreement. Has anyone switched phone carriers? Has anyone gotten rid of facebook? Or stopped using Google? If you're going to blame someone here, it should be these private businesses. And they are the ones who you can really hurt -- much worse than you can hurt the government. The one (legal) thing you can do to these corporations is take your business elsewhere. But if you don't, I won't blame you. I didn't. It's amazing what I'm willing to put up with convenience is at stake.
I give credit to President Obama for addressing concerns about this stuff. His speech was brief and pretty much what you would probably expect, but still, addressing it makes it look like he is at least in touch with what has people very, very upset in our country. One thing that really stuck out to me... he mentioned a couple of times that the government is only gathering numbers and length of calls. No names. Why? What could you gain from that? I mean you could point out specific odd patterns of phone calls I suppose, but you would still need to know who that phone number is attached to in order to go after anyone. Seems kind of flimsy to me. Also he pointed out that no one can act on any of this information without a warrant, that nothing more can come of this without due process and everything else that would normally take place in an investigation. Sure, sure... for now. I have confidence that, as the President said, the people who are heading up all of this stuff have the constitution in mind and are being very careful. But what about the people who come after them? Or after that?
My point is, this opens the door to some very dangerous situations down the road. It was all done for the good of our country, for our protection, and with our hearts and minds in the right place... but I wonder if 50 years from now, we'll look back on this batch of years, this decade or so, and say "that's when it started. That's when we could have stopped it. Too late now."
And what of this guy who exposed everything and fled the country? The government is going to go after him. Obama even said so in his speech. He exposed a national security risk. But did he? Or did he simply remind the government that they work for We The People, and not the other way around? If this guy were a Chinese National who exposed some kind of scheme like this going on in that country, we would be praising him right now. We'd say "boy that took a lot of courage, standing up to the Chinese government like he did. A blow to communism and oppression, a win for freedom!" But if it happens here... blasphemy! Track that bastard down and make him pay for... for... for what? What did he really do, except let people know that the government was coming perilously close to violating the constitution? And the government's reaction... does that not just prove the point this guy was trying to make? You say something against our government and your only option is to flee the country in the hopes that someone will take you in?
I have to admit, I'm very split on this issue.
On the one hand, our privacy is very much being violated. It's one thing for companies like Google to track our behaviors and market things to us based on what they've learned through that process. After all, they are private companies, and we are using their services. I look at that is just plain marketing. However, it's another issue entirely when our government begins to track us without notice or warrant. That is not their job... or rather, it is a perversion of their job (which is to "protect us" from potential danger). In some ways I am actually kind of thankful this dude leaked the info. Unlike the Wikileaks guy, this dude didn't open the door to putting our troops in danger. He just saw something that really concerned him, and he blew the whistle on it. Just think if he hadn't exposed it... the phone recordings would be going on right now and we wouldn't even know it.
On the other hand, the world we live in now is completely different from anything before it. We are all way more connected, and in a lot of ways more exposed than the founding fathers of this country ever thought we would be. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. Do you think they even fathomed a world where a device in your pocket could connect you to every single human being on the planet? Or where some moron with depression and sanity issues could cobble together enough elements to blow up innocent people trying to run a marathon? Sure, the founding fathers were smart... but I think if you asked them to draw a picture of what the world would be like in the year 2013, it would look awesome, but totally different from what we're seeing right now.
When tragedies like the Boston bombing occurs, who do we blame? The government. We say "why didn't you do more? Surely you could have seen the patterns and stopped these guys!" Well, that's what they're trying to do right now. The question is, how much are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to let the government peer in from time to time and check out your phone calls and emails, if it means you will be safer the next time there is a big public event? Who knows how many attacks they've stopped thanks to The Patriot Act or any of the subsequent "attacks on our freedoms?" Unfortunately, we only see the ones that get through. And then there's the even bigger question: if you're not doing anything wrong, why do you care if they are listening in?
It's an argument of principle, I get it. Principle and precedence. By giving another inch, by letting our rights be squished just a little bit more, we are allowing the government to inch closer to total control. It is absolutely right for us to fear the consequences of that potential future, just like it is absolutely right for us to fear letting robots become self-aware. But you know what? If robots DID become self-aware, who would we turn to for help? ... I'll wait... ... The government!
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