4 ms·

Without wanting to sound alarmist, but I feel exactly the same way. I've abandoned my intentions of living in the US, or even just visiting there solely becaus

Without wanting to sound alarmist, but I feel exactly the same way. I've abandoned my intentions of living in the US, or even just visiting there solely because of this scandal. Not because of some deeply hurt morale or feeling, but because i simply wouldn't feel safe in the US anymore. I've been on the web for a very long time now, have read all kinds of chemistry, pyrotechnics and bomb-making newsgroups and websites and contributed to them. I've visited a school with over 50% muslim students and lots of my friends are muslim. I consider myself close to a maker, loving 3D Printers and Arduinos, Quad-Copters and the like... I post my political views openly on Google+ and Facebook and discus it via Twitter and Mail... I'm afraid to the extent i'm targeted and what would happen if I tried to visit the US.

UVB-76 13y ago
> I've abandoned my intentions of living in the US, or even just visiting there solely because of this scandal. Not because of some deeply hurt morale or feeling, but because i simply wouldn't feel safe in the US anymore. This is more a case of the straw that broke the camel's back for me, but I consider it a watershed moment nonetheless. Privacy is a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 8 of the ECHR, and one that I value dearly. Now it emerges the United States has been willingly violating my right to privacy for years. Rather than rectifying the matter, officials are saying it's okay because I'm not a US citizen — non-citizens obviously aren't entitled to human rights — and focusing their attention on punishing the person responsible for bringing this to my attention. That is unforgivable in my eyes.
tripzilch 13y ago
The week before I flew to the USA, two years ago, I was soooooo stressed out for similar reasons of really actually having "nothing to hide" and the problem where you don't get to decide or find out beforehand whether you had nothing to hide indeed. In the end everything went fine, here I am, back, still got my laptop. Except those fuckers now have my mugshot and fingerprints on file. Funny thing, had I said that 10 years ago, you'd think I did something wrong and ask "huh for real? what did you do? what happened?" ... well, I entered the country, I left them no choice! :-/

UVB-76 13y ago

> I've abandoned my intentions of living in the US, or even just visiting there solely because of this scandal. Not because of some deeply hurt morale or feeling, but because i simply wouldn't feel safe in the US anymore. This is more a case of the straw that broke the camel's back for me, but I consider it a watershed moment nonetheless. Privacy is a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 8 of the ECHR, and one that I value dearly. Now it emerges the United States has been willingly violating my right to privacy for years. Rather than rectifying the matter, officials are saying it's okay because I'm not a US citizen — non-citizens obviously aren't entitled to human rights — and focusing their attention on punishing the person responsible for bringing this to my attention. That is unforgivable in my eyes.

tripzilch 13y ago

The week before I flew to the USA, two years ago, I was soooooo stressed out for similar reasons of really actually having "nothing to hide" and the problem where you don't get to decide or find out beforehand whether you had nothing to hide indeed. In the end everything went fine, here I am, back, still got my laptop. Except those fuckers now have my mugshot and fingerprints on file. Funny thing, had I said that 10 years ago, you'd think I did something wrong and ask "huh for real? what did you do? what happened?" ... well, I entered the country, I left them no choice! :-/