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You have a great point, and the TL;DR of OP's entire post is "Unless you're doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about." Which is the slimmest argu

You have a great point, and the TL;DR of OP's entire post is "Unless you're doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about." Which is the slimmest argument I ever hear in favor of these pervasive civil rights violations. I've never been a terrorist, never given any information to a foreign enemy, hell, I've barely ever even broken the law. But I do have a personal interest in Russia, speak Russian, and have been to Russia 14 times. Am I on a list somewhere? Maybe I have done "something wrong" in the eyes of some automated, arbitrary algorithm that's connecting the dots of US citizens around the globe?

hnriot 13y ago
Doubt it, Russia isn't the enemy anymore, it is a country in disarray, trying to pick up the pieces after communism.
- kabdib 13y ago
  If there is anything to learn here, it is that a specific enemy is not necessary. You could get back-roomed for having said "I like Froot Loops" in a private email a decade ago. It could be /arbitrary/.
  - iaskwhy 13y ago
    Or they could just lie.
    - mpyne 13y ago
      Just like they could simply ignore the law and conspire with telecom companies to do the snooping anyways. :P If you're going to assume that level of malice on the part of government then the game is already over.
- reledi 13y ago
  A number of countries could be of interest, not just "the enemy". Recall that Russian sleeper agents were arrested in the US as recently as 2010.
Ygg2 13y ago
> Unless you're doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about. A nice comeback is to ask the accuser to apply similar standards as a universal principle. I mean if NSA didn't do anything wrong why worry about Snowden leaks. Or why doesn't Google show us their search algorithms?