Where is it? Where is the outrage over the NSA wiretapping program? Why does my own mother think it’s a GOOD thing? What the hell is the matter with you people?
Maybe they just need to know why they should be outraged. I see there being two separate aspects of the NSA wiretapping program. One is the NSA installing splitters on major internet backbone hubs to filter through data sent across the internet. Secondly and more egregiously, is the phone companies giving them car blanch access to phone records.
While I don’t like that the NSA monitors massive chunks of data being sent over the internet, I can’t really be mad about it. I don’t have an expectation of privacy for email. I know it’s sent plaintext over unsecured lines as it reaches its destination. I know that both the sending and receiving mail servers keep a copy that may persist indefinitely. I don’t like it, but I understand it’s the world we live in.
The second issue is what I really find disturbing. I have every expectation of privacy when I use my phone. What’s worse is no one seems to understand what could be done with this information. Just by analyzing who we call, when we call, and for how long, they can gleam tons of information about us.
Simply by analyzing the information by itself they can fairly accurately characterize what time we get up, what time we go to sleep, when we work, etc. Investigate one node and it exposes information about others. Say for instance they investigate someone and find out they are a Nazi sympathizer. There is a good chance that the people he calls frequently share the same ideology. Whether this is true or not, doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it is likely to be true and can be the starting point for an investigation for something, such as a hate crime.
What if it wasn’t a Nazi sympathizer, but a Muslim…or a Mormon…or a Pastafarian…or a Republican…or a Communist…or even an alcoholic?
Why does a pay as you go cell phone’s activity increase by ten fold on Friday and Saturday nights? Why does this phone accept calls from various people who otherwise are unconnected? Why do calls have an unusually short duration? What does this phone’s calling pattern match? Answer: drug dealer. Everyone who calls the phone: drug user.
So what? They are doing something illegal. If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide. Wrong. What if you misdialed and ended up calling that person by accident? What if that person legitimately worked for you during the day? What if this phone wasn’t being used by a drug dealer? What if ? Remember, the information they gleam is often accurate. Whether it’s actually true in this case doesn’t matter. You are now a suspect.
The NSA could cross reference the calling data with other sources and gain even more information. Start with the IRS. They could analyze people’s calls to determine how often they talk to people who work at the same company or even a competitor, people of other economic backgrounds, etc.
Now the possibilities for abuse are endless. What if someone wanted to cause a scandal at XYZ Corporation to decrease its market share? Why? There could be a politician with a financial stake in a competing startup company…or one with a vendetta for not making a larger campaign donation…or any of a thousand different motives. It doesn’t matter why. What matters is what they can do. I can think of quite a few things. Let’s start by analyzing high paid executives that work for the company. Do any of them frequently make calls at awkward hours; say after midnight, especially on the weekend? Do they call anyone who works for a strip club, escort service, etc? Do they call anyone of the opposite sex who is married?
Again, it doesn’t matter if it's accurate. All that matters is that now there are numerous leads that some investigative unit can use.
And last but definitely not least, a cell phone is a mini tracking device. It’s no secret that cell phone companies record the cell tower used when a call is placed. The police frequently subpoena this type of information to see if a suspect was in a location at a certain time. Instead of being used to prove guilt, it is often used as circumstantial evidence or to disprove statements such as from an alibi witness.
Do you want the government to know where you were every time your phone rang? Do you want them to know that you went on a trip…and everyone who went with you? Will that secret rendezvous you had with someone come back and haunt you 20 years from now? Will that college party you innocently attended at Duke while on a lacrosse scholarship be used to blackmail you once you enter a high level political office?
Bottom line folks, the government can paint a colorful picture of us with the information they collected. It doesn’t matter if that picture is true or whether or not anything you did was illegal. You now have no privacy, and that is a fundamental right we should have as Americans. So I ask again, where is the outrage? Maybe George Bernard Shaw was right. Back in 1933 he said:
An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means. There is no such thing in the country.
Here it is 73 years later and we are willing to trade our name, phone number, and social security number for a free hamburger. Maybe I should have asked myself why I thought anyone would be outraged in the first place.
-Eric Marvets