General News How much is the NSA actually spying on us?

Of course it does. But nobody can do anything about it because humanity is incapable of acting as a whole intelligent responsible entity. leaving themselves open to abuse of power by active minorities.

I would honestly at this stage assume that everything you ever do digitally is collected and stored. Whether it is all processed actively is another matter. Probably not due to the sheer volume.

I dont get why everyone has been so upset lately about PRISM and such... had they never heard of ECHELON?

This is the world we live in.

 

Guys, they aren't spying on us, they are doing so they can catch terrorists and try to prevent future attacks.

 

Goodness only knows, they have a sever complex big enough to store at the very least a large chuck of what is contained on the internet. Now processing it is a different matter entirely, they probably won't even go over your data unless it's been flagged by a filtering program. Now, what they could be looking for is the scary part. The definition of "terrorist" is a very open and opinion-based one. And what of the third party companies they use, What types of people have access to this data?

 

Whatever their reasons, you can be sure they are spying on people. Normal, innocent people like you and me. And do you really expect the government to have such power and not abuse it?

 

They arent actually looking at everyones shit. They just have everyones shit if they need to look through it and certain people are authorized to look through it to find specific things relating to cases and security risks.

 

uh, I watched this video that basically they spy on everyone for terrorist but have NO POWER to tell other organizations about terrorist and 911 still happened.

But gee, can one imagine how much power can be abused? >_>

 

let me clear up some issues.

the nsa does not listen in on our conversations; they collect information on phonecalls that ammounts to who is placing the call, who the call it placed to, and how long the calls last. if they have reason to believe someone is involved in terrorist activities, they can then get a warrent from a secret military court, known as a F.I.S.A. court, where they then can then listen in on conversations of specific suspects.

as for these programs failing to stop 9/11; the programs in question did not exist until after 9/11.

the intelligence agencies knew something was about to happen based on existing intelligence gathering picking up on a determined increase in chatter from known terrorists overseas. They told president george w. bush on august 4th, 2001, that osama bin laden determined to attack on american soil, and planes may be involved. the assumption in the intelligence community was that they might be trying to do a lockerbie bombing style attack, where commerical jets are targeted and blown up mid-flight. George W. Bush's responce was that it wont happen, and to do nothing.

in the aftermath, having allowed the country to be attacked, and nearly 3000 people murdered, George W Bush created these programs in a vast and calculated overreach, and while they have been, at times effective, the program was so massive, and the fear remains so strong, that it will take a long time to figure out how to trim it down to be less intrusive, but remaining effective as a counter terrorisem program.

oh, and the existance of such programs was public knowledge since the patriot act, around a decade ago...

all edward snowden did was use it to make a name for himself by revealing programs those who paid attention already knew existed.

 

lmao
if the US govt. wanted to stop terrorist attacks, they wouldnt be involved in so many imperialist wars

 

I never really understood why people are so obsessed with their supposed 'privacy' in this sense. The government doesn't care what porn sites you visited or what drama is going on in your life.

Abuse of power is far too dramatic. Do you really think they are going to take the time to read all of your emails and listen to your phone calls? It would literally be an impossible endeavor. Not to mention, there were already systems in place to monitor suspicious behavior. This system isn't anything new, it is just much more blatant.

I'd like to know the person that thinks their life is so eventful and important that government employees and officials are going to be pointlessly. digging for all of the dirt in their lives. Lets be realistic.

 

youre missing the point dude
its not whether or not they will/do look through people's stuff, it's that they can do it, and shouldnt be able to

 

You're the one missing the point, They should be able to do this.
Americans all the time, cry and whine about 9/11, pentagon, the boston bombings and how terrorists always get away and nobody does anything to stop it and yet when the government tries to do something helpful and different. PEOPLE still bitch.

This is why i can't stand my fellow americans. Nothing is ever good enough for them, They always complain about one thing or another.

I'm sorry...but since some people think they are just experts at this whole terrorists thing, Please give me a wonderful solution to preventing them. Please go ahead, oh wise one.

 

sorry for not finding the govt. violating your rights outlined in the constitution 'helpful and different'
and maybe if the government stopped arming terrorists in imperialist wars, there would be a little bit less terrorism?
i mean i dunno yuore acting like the expert here lol

 

No. i'm not, i'm just stating that They are coming up with a different solution that could possibly be helpful and You people are still bitching.

Sometimes, We have to test different things out to see if they work and sometimes, it might get in your privacy but honestly, im with GEN on this one.

They aren't going to listen to all phone calls, emails etc.
Only certain ones, You obviously ...have no good evidence to back up your claim.
They aren't going to look through every single email,phone call.

Only certain ones, like if 2 people are communicating in afghanistan or middle east countries. They might also look at some calls in the states from certain people with certain profiles.

Understand, they are just trying something different.
INstead of bitching like all you people seem to do, how about you just be grateful they are trying to find a solution?

 

what claim?

so any 2 people can fairly be assumed to be terrorists because theyre from the middle east? seems like an awfully big assumption to make

because its an invasion of peoples most basic rights??
i dunno, but maybe giving your government powers that dictators in totalitarian regimes could only dream of is not a good thing. did that occur to you?

 

No, I don't think you understood what I was saying. My question was why do you care? Why? Are you planning on committing a crime in which people are actively going to be searching for your internet searches, texts, phone calls, etc. What is so topic secret that is being done on modern media?

Its not as if they are suddenly reading our minds now. The government and protection agency have actively searched through the internet usage, phone calls, and texts of individuals who are being investigated for a crime. The only difference now is it is starting to be automatically collected for them to use. They aren't going to sit there and search what "Jim is doing today." If you come under suspicion of terrorism they would have come to your house and seized all of your devices anyway.

What is even the argument, that it shouldn't be so easy to catch me in an act of terror? Really?

 

^

exactly

 

who defines what terrorism is?
are the marches of the black people who demand civil rights terrorism?
are the stonewall riots [the single event that started the entire LGBT rights movement] terrorism?
is freeing animals from hideous vivisections labs [like the ALF do] terrorism?
with the information they can get now, the government could have cracked down on all of these movements
is that okay?

 

So damn paranoid, people are...

 

considering past abuses of power by governments, i think its justified