@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Hi back, frank... and yes, a hello to Diane from me too.
We all know/knew that spying of nation by nation was on-going. But that's not the issue here. The significant issue is what modern technology facilitates (massive surveillance of citizens with near zero oversight and with maximal secrecy and with seemingly inexplicable aggression towards anyone who might reveal such) and thus how that places all citizens in a very real danger of living in something that even Orwell could imagine only in terms of how such tendencies might manifest in a far more low tech world.
Not sure why it seems inexplicable to you, Bernie, but without necessarily agreeing with it, I understand it completely.
The ONLY people who can reveal it are people WHO HAVE PLEDGED NOT TO REVEAL IT...and who are required by very explicit laws NOT TO REVEAL IT.
It is my opinion that "privacy" (anywhere near to the degree we seem to want it) IS GONE...forever. It just is gone. You are being photographed everywhere...you are being followed or tracked everywhere. Almost all of the transactions in which you engage that once were private...are simply no longer private.
In any case, there are dangerous people intent on doing incredibly destructive things right now...and governments are going to have to step up the methods they use to deter or stop these dangerous people...
...or the numbers of people who will die and be maimed will go through the roof.
The niceties for which you argue right now look fine on paper. But in the real world they will look like cartoon stuff if a dirty bomb is exploded in a major city.
Leaders have an obligation to try to prevent that kind of thing...and if you think the prevention is not going to be invasive of privacy...you are dreaming, old friend.
