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OK, I am going to play a devil's advocate. - The job of three-letters agencies is to find out all various enemies of the state. That includes terrorists, but a

OK, I am going to play a devil's advocate. - The job of three-letters agencies is to find out all various enemies of the state. That includes terrorists, but also various gangsters, officials of sort-of-enemy states (like Russia). That's why they exist. - Following US nation interests has higher priority than rights of citizens, especially in other countries. - People, that US have a reason to spy on, probably will use Tor/Tails, or at least try to find something about it. It makes sense for NSA to filter those people and focus their spying on them specially. - Not all Tor interested folks will be evil, but the percentage there will be much higher than in just random internet. So it makes sense to focus on them. Just like it makes sense for a local police to be in a neighbourhood, that's known for a higher criminality. So I understand why NSA does this, and why do they single out Tor-interested folks.

chroem 12y ago
>The job of three-letters agencies is to find out all various enemies of the state. Within the confines of the law and US constitution. If all you care about is rooting out enemies of the state, then you're left with organizations like the SS or Stasi.
- maximumoverload 12y ago
  Does the US constitution matter with respect to non-US entities though? Why should US-based agency care about rights of German citizens, for example?
  - chroem 12y ago
    While I think it should apply to non-US citizens, the fact that it technically doesn't is irrelevant as long as they're still willfully violating the rights of US citizens too.
chippy 12y ago
The job of a government is towards it's country. A country is also made up of multinational companies and corporations. Modern say spying is commercial and industrial in nature also... it's not just used to catch bad guys, it's used to get an advantage. Whilst industrial spying does not trigger emotions as much and infringe their own citizens rights as much, it's arguably an even worse applications of our intelligence agencies.

chroem 12y ago

>The job of three-letters agencies is to find out all various enemies of the state. Within the confines of the law and US constitution. If all you care about is rooting out enemies of the state, then you're left with organizations like the SS or Stasi.

maximumoverload 12y ago
Does the US constitution matter with respect to non-US entities though? Why should US-based agency care about rights of German citizens, for example?
- chroem 12y ago
  While I think it should apply to non-US citizens, the fact that it technically doesn't is irrelevant as long as they're still willfully violating the rights of US citizens too.

chippy 12y ago

The job of a government is towards it's country. A country is also made up of multinational companies and corporations. Modern say spying is commercial and industrial in nature also... it's not just used to catch bad guys, it's used to get an advantage. Whilst industrial spying does not trigger emotions as much and infringe their own citizens rights as much, it's arguably an even worse applications of our intelligence agencies.