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The NSA violates privacy at scale - a lot of little violations of civil liberties. It's the difference between robbing a man for everything he has, versus pick-
by kmeisthax 3y ago
The NSA violates privacy at scale - a lot of little violations of civil liberties. It's the difference between robbing a man for everything he has, versus pick-pocketing 30 cents out of the pocket of every person on the planet.
Furthermore, they're part of a larger intelligence apparatus that has absolutely committed very large and very harmful violations of civil liberties. The NSA's sister org, the CIA, was overthrowing democratically elected left-wingers in South America for decades, replacing them with brutal dictators and tyrants that gave both Hitler and Stalin runs for their money. The CIA wrote the book on how to do so, arguably even moreso than the KGB did. In fact, the reason why Russia today[0] is so effective at information warfare and covert propaganda is specifically because they learned from observation.
[0] Not(?) to be confused with Russia Today
- tptacek 3y agoIf you're thinking about overseas signals intelligence, then, like the signals intelligence practice in every industrialized state in the world, the chartered purpose of NSA is to conduct those privacy violations. The safeguards we're given against NSA --- take them as seriously as you want --- are about domestic surveillance.
- boffinAudio 3y agoJust because Americans believe they have domestic rights being protected doesn't mean their intelligence apparatus isn't violating human rights at massive scale. Yes, the purpose of the NSA is to violate human rights at scale. No, this is not a tolerable situation for those of us in the free world.
- tptacek 3y agoYou keep saying "NSA", but you mean "the intelligence agencies of every industrialized country in the world".
- boffinAudio 3y agoNo, you mean that - in order to justify the continued existence of the NSA - but I really do mean NSA when I state NSA. There are no other intelligence agencies coming even close to the human rights violations committed every millisecond by the American people.