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The thing that this OP-ed misses is that the fear around this surveillance is that once we're done with terrorism, the "haystack" of data will be searched for t

The thing that this OP-ed misses is that the fear around this surveillance is that once we're done with terrorism, the "haystack" of data will be searched for tax fraud, drug deals, etc. If the writer of the op-ed could address those fears, this would actually be an enlightening read, not just a boilerplate response from someone in the intelligence community.

ihsw 13y ago
I wonder when the well-connected neighbourhood white knights will get access to that information, and at that point we'll truly be in Hell. Voting records are currently anonymous, but what of our personal opinions? Some publicly identify as a certain political persuasion, but privately they identify another political persuasion. For example, there are people who truly believe in communism but any public endorsement of it is dangerous, and others adhere to economic conservatism but their feelings extend farther towards libertarianism. What about when our neighbours attack us based on our online conversations? It's not as uncommon as you could think, gerrymandering and the electoral college already stir up seething and venomous hatred of The Other Party(TM). It's not a matter of if the NSA's treasure-trove of information leaks out, but when. Imagine for a moment if Zimmerman were as evil as the media paints him, and, instead of callously shooting the Treyvon boy, he queried the local PRISM data distribution centre. He could instead engage in a smear campaign against the young man. In retaliation, Treyvon's allies gather data on Zimmerman that indicates he's a bisexual and he's a swinger with his wife. These "data wars" may seem far-fetched, but lately I've been feeling a bit more paranoid than usual. How about job discrimination? Surely your public online activity can directly influence the kind of jobs you can get, but the private online activity could permanently damage your career prospects. Vetting processes nowadays check for a variety of red flags that are unrelated to activities that pertain to your job. Imagine if your entire browser history -- including the things you say, in addition to the websites you visit -- is indexed and stored in perpetuity. And it's all completely outside of your control. Now let's take this a step further. The TSA manages a no-fly list that is well-known for false positives, and victims have no recourse over this at all. Now imagine that false positives occurred during job vetting processes and your job application is silently denied because someone else's unpleasant online activities were accidentally linked to your own. Again, you have no control over this, and you also have no recourse. There is nothing you can do to remedy the situation.
LoganCale 13y ago
This is literally already happening, and has been in secret for years. The DEA and IRS, from what is known so far, receive intelligence from the NSA and others to tip them off for various domestic crimes, and they then use that tip to build a parallel criminal case against the people, while hiding the true illegally obtained source of intelligence from everyone, including the courts. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/dea-and-nsa-team-intelligence-laundering https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/dea-and-nsa-team-intel...
donniezazen 13y ago
It is a matter of few years when other federal agencies and private corporations will start wanting access to this information making it nearly impossible for private citizens to live freely. I heard that bad elements are still active and kicking. Offence is not the best way to promote peace. I think government has legitimate need of the information they collect but I also want them to establish regulation to delete all information after certain period of time, so, nobody is able to use this information to preemptively attack or blackmail private citizens.

ihsw 13y ago

I wonder when the well-connected neighbourhood white knights will get access to that information, and at that point we'll truly be in Hell. Voting records are currently anonymous, but what of our personal opinions? Some publicly identify as a certain political persuasion, but privately they identify another political persuasion. For example, there are people who truly believe in communism but any public endorsement of it is dangerous, and others adhere to economic conservatism but their feelings extend farther towards libertarianism. What about when our neighbours attack us based on our online conversations? It's not as uncommon as you could think, gerrymandering and the electoral college already stir up seething and venomous hatred of The Other Party(TM). It's not a matter of if the NSA's treasure-trove of information leaks out, but when. Imagine for a moment if Zimmerman were as evil as the media paints him, and, instead of callously shooting the Treyvon boy, he queried the local PRISM data distribution centre. He could instead engage in a smear campaign against the young man. In retaliation, Treyvon's allies gather data on Zimmerman that indicates he's a bisexual and he's a swinger with his wife. These "data wars" may seem far-fetched, but lately I've been feeling a bit more paranoid than usual. How about job discrimination? Surely your public online activity can directly influence the kind of jobs you can get, but the private online activity could permanently damage your career prospects. Vetting processes nowadays check for a variety of red flags that are unrelated to activities that pertain to your job. Imagine if your entire browser history -- including the things you say, in addition to the websites you visit -- is indexed and stored in perpetuity. And it's all completely outside of your control. Now let's take this a step further. The TSA manages a no-fly list that is well-known for false positives, and victims have no recourse over this at all. Now imagine that false positives occurred during job vetting processes and your job application is silently denied because someone else's unpleasant online activities were accidentally linked to your own. Again, you have no control over this, and you also have no recourse. There is nothing you can do to remedy the situation.

LoganCale 13y ago

This is literally already happening, and has been in secret for years. The DEA and IRS, from what is known so far, receive intelligence from the NSA and others to tip them off for various domestic crimes, and they then use that tip to build a parallel criminal case against the people, while hiding the true illegally obtained source of intelligence from everyone, including the courts. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/dea-and-nsa-team-intelligence-laundering https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/dea-and-nsa-team-intel...

donniezazen 13y ago

It is a matter of few years when other federal agencies and private corporations will start wanting access to this information making it nearly impossible for private citizens to live freely. I heard that bad elements are still active and kicking. Offence is not the best way to promote peace. I think government has legitimate need of the information they collect but I also want them to establish regulation to delete all information after certain period of time, so, nobody is able to use this information to preemptively attack or blackmail private citizens.