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Two elements of the government rhetoric surrounding this issue really bug me. First, they use phrasing like "listen to calls" which is nonsensical in the mode
by eob 13y ago
Two elements of the government rhetoric surrounding this issue really bug me.
First, they use phrasing like "listen to calls" which is nonsensical in the modern world. If a computer observes all packets traveling across a fiber line, transcribes VoIP traffic into text, and then only persists counts of keywords to magnetic storage medium -- does that count as "listening"? If they do this proactively, but no human ever looks at those counts unless a warrant is pulled, does it count as listening? When we conduct the debate around outdated language, it is impossible to be specific about what is taking place.
Second, the government tends to regurgitate the law, rather than existing practice.
- bobwaycott 13y agoWhat I find a bit more insidious is that "listening" is being discussed in the public sphere in the way it is expected to mean--that is, as a real-time, present-tense, current action. In practice, what is occurring and actually under debate, but being evaded because of the language employed, is "listening" in the context the government is doing it--that is, as a retroactive, past-tense, stepping-back-in-time action.