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

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

[na1led]

Obama is just the idiot puppet on stage. It's the ones behind the curtain controlling things.

Re:My two cents

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

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".

Re:Get used to it

[fustakrakich]

Let's face it: we now live in a surveillance society.

Only because the majority of the voters want it that way.

Get used to it, because there's nothing you can do about it.

Ah, learned helplessness... The door is open yet nobody steps through.

Re:Get used to it

[sl4shd0rk]

Get used to it, because there's nothing you can do about it.

Precisely. Give in, give up, don't give a single f*ck. That's how we got where we are -- half the the population just said "ah, f*uck it. Nothing I can do about it, so BOHICA"

"Fighting back" against problem legislation is arduous. For most Americans, they don't want to put in the effort to contact their representatives and voice their opinion. They think someone else will do it. Well, not enough people do and pretty soon we have stuff like military drones in the sky, and some really bat-shit crazy corporate sponsored law makers in office.

How do you think SOPA/PIPA got beat? Lot's of regular people raising hell about it. Making a big enough deal out of it that the media covered it and it was impossible to pass now because the lawmakers couldn't keep it some clandestine piece of legislation that would get passed quietly.

Let's face it: There's more everyone could be doing to keep crap like this off the law books.

Re:You got it.

[ATMAvatar]

That's a cute way to ignore that the surveillance is completely bipartisan. This is neither strictly Obama's fault nor any meaningful change from the last administration. Were McCain elected, we would not be any better off in this regard. Should Romney be elected, we will be no better off. Both parties want this desperately, because it is a springboard to consolidating even more power in their hands.