No Upper Bound On Phone Record Collection, Says NSA

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No Upper Bound On Phone Record Collection, Says NSA

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 26, 2013 @09:03AM from the don't-write-a-blank-check-to-the-government dept.

PCWorld reports that "[A] U.S. surveillance court has given the National Security Agency no limit on the number of U.S. telephone records it collects in the name of fighting terrorism, the NSA director said Thursday. The NSA intends to collect all U.S. telephone records and put them in a searchable 'lock box' in the interest of national security, General Keith Alexander, the NSA's director, told U.S. senators." But don't worry; it's just metadata, until it isn't. (Your row in the NSA database may already be getting cozy in its nice new home in Utah.)

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Intends to? by mosb1000 · 2013-09-26 09:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

The NSA intends to collect all U.S. telephone records and put them in a searchable 'lock box' in the interest of national security
No, they don't intend to do this at all, they already do collect all of it.
Metadata Equals Surveillance by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-26 09:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

But don't worry; it's just metadata
Metadata Equals Surveillance
Tinfoil hats for all by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-26 09:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

Turns out the tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists were pretty much spot on.
Re:New word for Webster's by dyingtolive · 2013-09-26 09:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

I don't think they need a new word. Just use a perfectly good old word. How about "tyrant"?

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Re:This is gonna be awesome! by intermodal · 2013-09-26 09:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's not a pretty idea. But even more frightening is what history tells us about the end-result of governments that believe in their own unlimited powers.

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In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Re:get over it by AlphaWoIf_HK · 2013-09-26 09:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

Get used to it.
No, and that sounds like a terrible idea.

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Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.
Re:This is gonna be awesome! by istartedi · 2013-09-26 10:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

I've never seen a civil war up close before
. Never going to happen in the US.
Yeah. There's no precedent for that.

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For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Not merely illegal, but unconstitutional. by jcr · 2013-09-26 10:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

Andrew Napolitano explains very clearly why the FISA "court" is an unconstitutional institution, and not a court of law at all.
Even if the FISA court was a legal forum, no court in this country has the authority to override the 4th amendment.
-jcr

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The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Re:Foil hats? by brxndxn · 2013-09-26 16:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

How the fuck is this funny? We have a direct quote from the director of the NSA and you make a joke alluding to conspiracy theorists like they're the crazy ones. The thing that is crazy here is that the dumb useless clueless fucktarded people like you would rather make light of something and continue to act like something is nothing than actually effect some positive change..
The US Constitution is the supreme law of the land.. You would probably make fun of that too.

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--- We need more Ron Paul!