Really struggling with what to think of the NSA/phone story

[quote="JHD, post: 312393, member: 5922"Our society has become so dependent on technology, we are making it incredibly easy for businesses and .gov to intrude on our lives.[/quote]

Fast and easy for businesses......slow and hard for governments....
 
Heard about this on the radio the other day, brings it to new levels of creepy.
We've all had those moments of Facebook-induced desperation — skulking around an ex's profile to see if they've ended their rebound relationship, or are gleefully posing with their new sweetheart in Cabo. But it appears the social network knows more about your love life than just who you're stalking.

So says Facebook senior engineer Lars Backstrom and Cornell University computer scientist Jon Kleinberg, who created an algorithm that not only identifies a user's real-life romantic partner, but can also determine the likelihood of their impending breakup.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2426572,00.asp
 
Why we are letting anyone, ally or not, get away with this grand standing is beyond me. Maybe it would sober them up a little if their capabilities "accidentally" found their way into the open. But we won't do it. Our foreign policy is weak right now.
 
Security vs. capitalism...ready...FIGHT!

http://qz.com/147313/ciscos-disastr...mpanies-out-of-a-trillion-dollar-opportunity/

Cisco chief executive John Chambers said on the company’s earnings call that he believes other American technology companies will be similarly affected. Cisco saw orders in Brazil drop 25% and Russia drop 30%. Both Brazil and Russia have expressed official outrage over NSA spying and have announced plans to curb the NSA’s reach.
Analysts had expected Cisco’s business in emerging markets to increase 6%, but instead it dropped 12%, sending shares of Cisco plunging 10% in after-hours trading.
 
It's perfect. The nanny state has their nose in everyone's business so business loses profits. :mad:
 
Even if Cisco is looking for a scapegoat...perception is reality. Our country is built upon freedom and the free market and both are colliding right now. I'm sure no one has looked at history and witnessed how countries with totalitarian governments also dominated their economy and while this is just a fraction of a worst case scenario, it is hard to avoid the parallels.

Sleep well, Citizens.
 
Why we are letting anyone, ally or not, get away with this grand standing is beyond me. Maybe it would sober them up a little if their capabilities "accidentally" found their way into the open. But we won't do it. Our foreign policy is weak right now.

It's the dynamics of a two-level game. To win their domestic game, they have to act like this. But they're probably singing a different tune at the national level. But yeah, everyone does it (looking at you, Europe).

http://hitthewoodline.com/politics/2013/11/12/much-ado-about-intel
 
It's the dynamics of a two-level game. To win their domestic game, they have to act like this. But they're probably singing a different tune at the national level. But yeah, everyone does it (looking at you, Europe).

http://hitthewoodline.com/politics/2013/11/12/much-ado-about-intel

And don't we have to monitor other countries, including our allies? It seems that they could harm us even more than our enemies, were they to turn, with their knowledge of our intelligence.
 
As most here are defenders of the Second Amendment right, how does that now sit with the decision that the US federal Court has ruled that NSAs' data gathering is unconstitutional?
There was a great interview with a former White House Counsel on NPR (I cannot, for the life of me, remember the guy's name) who outlined why the case would likely not survive a Supreme Court challenge

Some of the salient points:
-The information gathered is meta-data, not actual phone calls or email logs, and therefore is not akin to a search (and not protected under the 4th amendment)
-Smith vs. Maryland already grants the government the ability to record this info
-Database searches of the recorded information has to go through a legal review process and has checks and balances in place (he didn't go into exact details, but basically said that FISA courts oversee this stuff)

Here's an NPR article that addresses some of these http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...bulk-phone-record-collection-unconstitutional

Still not sure what to think about it.
 
I've said and thought that it was unconstitutional from the very beginning. I really don't understand how anyone who has read the 4th & 5th amendments, can say that it is constitutional.
 
The judge from the federal district court stated that Smith v Maryland doesn't apply as there is a huge difference between gathering data on switched networks (POTS) and the metadata that is provided by cell phones and cell carriers. He stated that the decision was based on different circumstances in a different technology.

FISA oversees it, but the argument is that they are rubber stamping things without knowing the ramifications.

Either way, I think it is immaterial. Privacy has been dead for years. This is just the government getting in on the game.
 
As most here are defenders of the Second Amendment right, how does that now sit with the decision that the US federal Court has ruled that NSAs' data gathering is unconstitutional?

I am glad. I don't want the gov spying on me in the name of "security".
 
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