Wow with the revelation in the last few days about the obama administration eavesdropping on americans telephone,text and now E-mail will it change how you communicate with people about issues which you THINK are private?I mean think about it,if they pick up a convo that is not terrorism related but has pertinent info for say DEA or some other authorities dont you think they will pass it on?Of course they will.It is rediculous that this administration is using our tax dollars against our own citizens,THIS SHIT IS OUT OF CONTROL!Now you cant privately communicate with friends or family?WTF.
So the question is will you moderate what you communicate now that you know you are being monitored and what can you do to keep your private convos private?
I'm not trying to be a dick here, but you might want to know what's actually been reported before commenting on it.
The info that was shared with the NSA from Verizon was
metadata only. This includes stuff like hardware in use, locations (if GPS capable), and participants.
No conversations were recorded or turned over to the government. This doesn't qualify as eavesdropping. It is data mining.
Furthermore this was done mostly for business accounts, not normal consumer accounts.
There were trying to pinpoint locations of terrorists, plan and simple.
Now you're well within your rights to dislike that still, and I don't blame you for it--but get the facts straight.
Three things should also be noted:
1. This is every day stuff for the NSA and you're only hearing about it because of a leak to "The Guardian". The NSA likely has hundreds of programs like this one in place and they have
for decades. Kolah is actually right on the money here.
2. This program started in 2006 under then-president Bush (this is now public knowledge). So let's not choose to be disingenuous and put the entire blame on Obama. This is another example of selective conservative memory.
3. The president typically isn't the one who is briefed on these programs, instead it is
CONGRESS who receives the brief and gives the okay.
Take all of that as you will.