Electronic Surveillance By US Law Enforcement Agencies Rising Steeply

hypnosec writes "According to data obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), surveillance of emails and other forms of Internet communications without warrants has increased substantially over the last two years. Documents, obtained by the ACLU, reveal that there has been a 361% increase in 'pen register' and 'trap-and-trace' orders between 2009 and 2011. The ACLU has appealed to Congress to bring in more judicial oversight in these warrantless orders."

Comments

My two cents

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no excuse for such warantless searches. All searches need a warrant. If we're talking about a search sometime shortly before obtaining a warrant (with the risk of not getting one afterwards), that's a gray area, but no warrant afterwards means the evidence should not be used. But in no situation should there be any sort of search without said warrant.

Re:My two cents

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It's always (sadly) amusing to me how the Constitution thumpers are all about the Founders Intent and Strict Interpretations and all that - right up until it's time to dispense with all that shit so we can have Yet More authoritarian "law enforcement".

Ah, spoken like a true soft-on-crime liberal who fails to understand the deep intellectual nuances of stricterprertationalism!

It is really quite a simple matter: Just pretend that the Founding Fathers were a bunch of nit-picking, crabbed, legal technicians(just as you probably are, if you are a promising candidate for a deeper understanding of stricterprertationalism), and that their Intent in writing the bill of rights was not to address contemporary and recent past abuses of state power in light of that 'Enlightenment humanist' political theory nonsense that so many of them wasted their time reading and thinking about; but to put in place a series of precise, legalistic, and highly specific protections of certain types of property and communications media, and only those.
After all, it's not as though somebody would fail to regulate 'pen registers' just because he was writing in the late 18th century; but because he Intended that pen registers should remain unregulated.

Then, consult a plastic surgeon for administration of botulism toxins until you can do that with a straight face. See? It's really quite simple.

Get used to it

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Let's face it: we now live in a surveillance society. If it's not the government (FBI, NSA, CIA, DHS, etc.), it's a corporation trying to make money (Google (DoubleClick), Microsoft, Apple, etc.) or an IP troll (RIAA, MPAA, Sony, EMI, etc.). We drive down the street, and we're under almost constant video surveillance. Walk into a store, bank, restaurant, dry cleaners, expect to be photographed. Soon we'll have drones overhead. Big Brother is watching. Their excuse is "We're just trying to make money/keep you safe", and their justification is "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.". Get used to it, because there's nothing you can do about it.

Re:Get used to it

[grenadeh]

Let's face it != "Things are the way they are and we should accept them." No. Not because it's a strict constructionist point of view, not just that. The constitution says this shit isn't ok. Did they foresee predator drones? No they did not. They foresaw that government, like it has always done in the past because government is people and people are flawed, will try to do things it shouldn't be doing - based on governmental theory and based on the philosophys floating around since the Enlightenment and Renaissance. This is the type of BS books were written about - 1984, Anthem, etc. etc. The kind of BS movies like Equilibrium show. There shouldn't be any discussion about this without a disclaimer beforehand that everyone is fully aware this is unacceptable. And yea, there's a lot we can do about it. We can do what Jefferson all but told us to do, rise up and slay them. From time to time the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. He wrote extensively about revolution as a tool.

Re:And it will go down if you get rid of Obama

[Anonymous Coward]

Why beat around the bush?
Let's call them out!

Damn... I tried to make a list... but I gave up, since it would be easier to list those who are not in on it.
- The CIA and their constant propping up of evil dictators, arming of enemies, and the like, in foreign countries as well as in the USA itself. (Basically at least the entire Arabic and north-African world.)
- The banking conspiracy (unrelated to the "conspiracy theorists", since it's an actual real conspiracy. [Cue the "there are zero conspiracies in the history of humanity and there never will be" conspiracy theorists. ^^)
- The weapons industry. (For supporting genocide, general mass-murder, and igniting wars to profit off both sides.)
- The fossil fuel industry. (Duh. [Includes the Bush and Laden clan, Exxon, etc.])
- The pharma industry. (For making money off of and generally fostering the abuse of hard drugs by most of the population, including young children.)
- The content distribution and artist extortion Mafia (includes everything that uses the imaginary property lie, like Microsoft, Apple and Joe Biden’s gang.)
- Monsanto & co. (so evil, they deserve their own personal spot)
- Dick Cheney and his team of Neocons. (For creating a totalitarian industrial-feudalist faschism. [Do not make the mistake of thinking that team would exclude the democrats.])
- The churches. (Organizations that abuse the mentally ill and weak for money and power, and rape children by the masses. [At least they partially stopped the inquisition shit.])
And last but not least:
- The lethargic and pathetically passive population.

See? Who the hell is left? Those who now sit in jail because they spoke up, and are now hated by the brainwashed masses? Like Assange?
"Look how you get raped in the ass! I found proof!”
"DIE, you treasonous asshole! We don't wanna hear that! Let's focus on how you imaginary-hurt our torturers, cause that is totally not OK!"

Sorry, you are doomed, and it's your own damn fault!
You'd hate and murder everyone who would even dare to openly talk about saving you!

Re:You got it.

[Hatta]

That's a cute way to ignore that the surveillance is completely bipartisan.

That's a generous way to put on it. To put a finer point on it, the US government is monopartisan.