Translating President Obama's NSA Reform Promises Into Plain English

sandbagger writes "The cynics at the Register have picked apart Barack Obama's NSA reform promises. As to be expected, there's some good, some deliberate vagueness, talk of 'ticking bomb scenarios' and the politician's favourite 'promises to commit to future reforms'. Basically, it's a fig-leaf to kick the can down the road so the next president has to deal with it. He's promising bulk data will go to a third party so the NSA can't see it. Okay, who is this magical third party?" They don't seem to me nearly cynical enough.

Comments

Are you shitting me?

[Virtucon]

Mr. Teleprompter who is now costing me another house payment a month because my old plan was not good enough? His bullshit reforms with the NSA don't go nearly far enough and I have no faith that the current leaders (snicker) in congress will make meaningful reform something to debate in the upcoming elections. What his speech and plan amount to is a white wash of the situation and what has to happen is a constitutional amendment to finally put personal privacy rights first and foremost. This country was founded on the principals of liberty with a government by the people and for the people. Right now we have courts that we have no visibility into making decisions appointed by an appointee making decisions with an agency that has a substantial amount of resources at their disposal to undermine our privacy and to corrupt every aspect of our lives. It's not just the NSA but other government agencies we have to worry about, that's the point we have to raise the discussion up a bit higher. On the commercial side of things we have new intrusions daily into our privacy by companies and local governments who don't have our privacy in their plans, everything from license plate scanners to RFID tags we take on our cars and other methods sold for "efficiency of operational need" yet there's not uniform retention or privacy policy governing it. Drive a car, your movements are now being scrutinized on multiple levels. Want to take public transportation? The cameras being installed on streets and in public transportation systems will monitor you along with the open microphone technology, you'll be recorded as well. Add this to facial recognition software and it's not just Facebook you have to worry about, it's every jackbooted cop or DHS Gladys Kravitz snooping on your every movement. Do you need to go to the store? We now have trackers in supermarkets that know what aisle you're on and couple that with your register receipt, they know what you buy all in the name of targeted marketing. Welcome to the new police state folks with our new idiot in chief and his retards in Congress all bobble-heading along the way with the large cadre of contractors and companies making money off of it. Hope you feel safe now.