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NSA Tracking Cellphone Locations Worldwide
tramp writes "The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals — and map their relationships — in ways that would have been previously unimaginable. Of course it is 'only metadata' and absolutely not invading privacy if you ask our 'beloved' NSA." Pretty soon, the argument about whether you have in any given facet of your life a "reasonable expectation of privacy" may take on a whole new meaning. Also at Slash BI.
No, it absolutely will not. People need to get through their heads that just because your rights are violated, that doesn't mean expecting them not to be becomes unreasonable. If someone breaks into your house every day, it doesn't become "reasonable" for them to do so, or unreasonable for you to expect people to stay out of your house.
The logic espoused by the quoted idea is the same as saying if police were to start strip searching everyone without cause, it would be reasonable simply because it always happens.
Stop that.
Precedent is a bigger component of the law than logic is.
Don't mistake the way you'd like things to work from the way they actually work.
Possible meanings of that quote:
1 - We're collecting it unintentionally
2 - We're collecting it without authority
3 - We're not doing it in bulk, each one is individually collected
4 - We're not doing it in the US, only everywhere else
5 - We're collecting information, just not location information
6 - We're using subcontractors that are not part of the "intelligence community"
7 - We're considering the entity doing it something other than an "element"
8 - We're collecting it from devices other than cellphones
9 - We're collecting location information about people, not about cellphones
10 - I am the very model of a modern major-general.
I like the idea the folks in Utah had to cut off the water supply from the NSA facility so they're unable to cool their hardware and it melts. An across-the-board move to shun them and their conspirators in Washington would send the clear message that they had better change course and obey the law before the American people compel them through more drastic measures.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
(Warrantless) Metadata: That info with which the King of England would have rounded up the Founding Fathers, and thus they would have considered it part of search and sezure protections.
This "it's just metadata" is a fraud.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Actually, yes, that's how the human mind works. If you let someone get away with it, more will follow suit.
I remember an experiment where a "No littering" sign was put up on a corner where people used to dump their trash. They cleaned up the place and put up the sign, and then they observed what happened. A few people came up with their bulky waste, saw the sign, saw that it was clean and turned around with their waste. Nobody dumped their trash.
Then they placed a few items of "waste" underneath the sign and continued to observe. Again, people came by with trash and they had no qualms dumping their trash right underneath the "no littering" sign, simply because they were not the first to break the law. Someone else already did, so it's ok.
Don't let any government get away with it. If one of them does it, it's ok for the others to follow.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.