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User: AndrewCWiggin

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  1. Re:What people seem to forget... on Stanford Researchers Spot Medical Conditions, Guns, and More In Phone Metadata · · Score: 1

    It SHOULDN'T take just a phone call, though...a court order is required, though the powers that be seem to find ways around that...

    Too much opportunity for abuse.

  2. What people seem to forget... on Stanford Researchers Spot Medical Conditions, Guns, and More In Phone Metadata · · Score: 0

    Is that the metadata has no names or content. Who is contacting all these people? By looking at area codes and googling phone numbers you could determine a city, but that's about it. Why are they contacting these people? Do they contact an abortion clinic because they or someone close to them want an abortion? Perhaps they are anti-abortion. Maybe they are part of the press. Or they could be informed citizens trying to gain more information.

    Metadata analysis is an art, not a science.

    Of course, I am still not for metadata collection...I'm just saying that fears of metadata abuse are overexaggerated.

  3. Re:Loopholes? on Speculation On Large-Scale Phone Location Snooping · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why use loopholes when they don't have any qualms about outright breaking the law?

    Why break the law when they can follow to the letter every initiative passed by a corrupt Executive in Chief?

  4. Re:An even bigger issue on Speculation On Large-Scale Phone Location Snooping · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gag orders are quite legal.

    First Amendment rights can be suspended if it can be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that it is in the interest of the common good. That is why it is illegal to yell "fire" in a theater when there is no fire - the possibility of people getting hurt in a panic balances your right to free speech.

    Gag orders protect many national secrets that would cause the death of thousands, perhaps millions of people. They conceal the locations of government operatives, and protect the true capabilities of the nation's defense.

    They are extremely beneficial when used correctly. Unfortunately, they are abused at a rate that is quite alarming by corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen.