The average surveillance reform article irks me. Most if not all tend to miss the fact that privacy protections take effect when the data is accessed. NSA has i

The average surveillance reform article irks me. Most if not all tend to miss the fact that privacy protections take effect when the data is accessed. NSA has intentionally toyed with the definition of the word collect to mean access to data that has already been intercepted and stored.[0] In other words: every U.S. citizen's private domestic communications have been rotting in Bluffdale, Utah for the past five years—and likely will remain there indefinitely along with all future communications. If rogue actors (insiders or otherwise) are able to get side-channel access, the fact privacy protections exist will mean precisely nothing. The best thing for domestic surveillance reform—short of every elected official suddenly having the entirety of their intercepted digital communications leaked—would be for the Trump administration to wantonly abuse the NSA's domestic capability in a completely untactful manner, and getting caught red-handed doing it. The last Bush administration abused the hell out of it, but they were at least somewhat careful in doing so.[1] [0] https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/wordgames#collect https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/wordgames#collect [1] http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/wp-content/uploads/BF.0112.Tice_20130617.mp3 http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/wp-content/uploads/BF.0112.T... (Skip to 00:48:26)